Westwater,Nov. 29,30 2008

Driving out on the 28th.... Camping at the Westy put-in. Colorado river to the left,early morning....

A little rigging at the put-in.

Big wave Dave and Dan.

Dan and Moondog.....

Hanging out at the old Miners cabin(not visible)for lunch.

Moondog,hangin out in Kent's kayak......

Who's the pretty doggy!!

My buddy Dan picked up a permit for this 18mile trip in eastern Utah,not far from Moab. It's always an entertaining raft trip. Once your in the canyon its class III rapids one after another-until Skull rapid (class IV) then two more class III's. Since your kind've committed once you enter the canyon,its always exciting and gets the adrenaline pumpin. However,i left my camera on after our first night on the river--so there will be no pics of the good stuff. Temps were decent. Not too cold at night. The water was definitely COLD though. I think this was my fifth trip down the canyon.....

Rawah Trail,Aug. 08

Sondra and I hiked(backpacked) this trail a couple months ago. Got rained on almost the entire first day. It was,about,17 or 18miles total. Its located in the Rawah mountains on the Wyoming border.

San Juan river,June 08

From Goosenecks State Park,looking down on the Great Gooseneck where we camped on the second night.

Monument Valley.

River House ruin.

Above our first night's camp.

A collared lizard.

The "Bump" camp on the Great Gooseneck.

The amazing pools at Slickhorn Canyon. A real oasis.

Me eating and staying cool. This is how we spent the majority of our time in camp-in whatever shade we could find. It was HOT. Really hot.

Our camp at Slickhorn Canyon.

The pools at the Grand Gulch camp. San Juan in the background,floating by.
The take-out at Clay Hills,middle of nowhere.

It was 106 degrees out.
I was lucky enough to win a(nother) rafting permit for the San Juan river,located in southern Utah,right by the Arizona border. It's 83miles in length and took us five days. We were also lucky enough to check out the famous Monument Valley in northern Arizona on Navajo land. It was the backdrop for lots and lots of old famous western&John Wayne movies. The place was true desert southwest. And we also got to stop by the Goosenecks State Park(which we would be rafting through,and camping in on night two) and check out the view of the meandering Goosenecks from above. It was awesome to see the river from a different perspective for once. Slickhorn Canyon,on day four,is always the highlight of the trip. The crystal clear water in the pools and clif jumping into the warm waters really makes it all worth the effort. If you call this effort.

Yampa Canyon-May 08

Beach the next morning....gone.

Wild horses.
Snow on the way home.

I've been wanting to do this river ever since I saw the pictures in Colorado Rivers and Creeks. Unfortunately,no one in my circle ever seems to pull a permit for this beauty. It truly is one of the best floats in the country. That's why when Tom's uncle invited me on this trip I had to jump at the chance. Yampa permits are rare. And its even more special when you get to float this trip at flood stage! We watched the river rise everyday. On our third or fourth day on the river we awoke to find the entire beach we had been hanging out on the night before-was now under water. It took us five days to do the 71 miles. We averaged about 6.5 mph on the river,even in flatwater spots with a heavy wind in our face. In one of the rapids we even got up to 21mph, GPS told us so,i guess. It wasn't mine. We had one raft flip in the class IV Warm Springs rapid. Definitely a scary,burly rapid. Anyways,here's proof.