Lodore Canyon
Whirlpool Canyon
Split Mountain
Green River, Colorado & Utah
July/August 2005

Each day the river was fluctuating between 2100 cfs and 1000 cfs. The damn dam regulation really screws with the river, basing its release on electricity demand to the detriment of ecology. But at least the dam keeps some water in the river late in July when it might otherwise be too dry to raft. We were excited to be able to use our third permit of the year.

Larry, my dad, and I would drive up from Albuquerque with the rafts and Chris' IK. Chris flew in to Salt Lake, where he met Mark and Renee and their 7-year old Gabe. Mark and Renee hadn't been rafting since they moved from New Mexico about 10 years ago and I'd never met Gabe before. They all drove in from Salt Lake. Becky, Mark's sister, is a world traveller with a little rafting experience. Her husband dropped her off after driving her down from Wyoming.

We drove up through Durango and Ouray to Grand Junction and got a hotel room there. The next day, when everybody else was starting their drives, we headed on to the put-in. Just before we got there it started to rain. The rain immediately turned to hail, and it poured! Visibility was down to nearly nothing so we stopped under a tree, watching the hillside erode away next to us in debris flows. It let up after about 20 minutes and we were able to make the last half-mile to the Gates of Lodore put-in. After looking around we stopped to talk to the ranger. He said there'd be another ranger there in the morning to check us in. We selected a camp site (we were the only ones there) next to a private boat ramp and started to unload. About that time the crew from Salt Lake pulled up. It was great timing.

Hellos all around and more unloading followed. Then we set up the rafts before settling in at camp. Two other groups also showed up at the camp that day - one was a 2-person party putting in the next day, along with us, and they knew Becky. There names were Marty and Tom. The other was a private party that would put in the day after us.

The morning of the put-in a bunch of us took the self-guided nature hike. It was nice and gave us the opportunity to look back on camp as well as down river.

We broke camp and started rigging the rafts when Becky arrived. We were now a complete party. Becky talked to Marty and Tom, and we decided to float with them whenever we could. The ranger did tell us not to combine our campsites though. A commercial party put in just before we were ready to leave. After getting all checked out with the ranger, we christened the boats and made a sacrafice to the river gods with some yummy rum. We got on the water at about 1 o'clock. It was a fabulous day and we were ready for some cooling water fights from the get-go.

The first day was fairly uneventful. At 2:25, after about 3.5 miles, we hit the first named rapid - Winnies Rapid (unrated) - which was just a rock that you had to duck around. Upper Disaster Falls and Lower Disaster Falls were not much to speak of (each rated III), but we had a late lunch (about 3:15-4:15) at the Upper Disaster scout. By 5:00 we stopped at Pot Creek 1 campground and looked around for about 20 minutes. This was a nice big camp with some bighorn hanging out on the cliffs above. Marty and Tom stayed here and we moved on down to our camp at Kolb, where we arrived a little after 5:30.

The next morning the sun hit our camp at 10:48. It made for a late morning. Tom and Wade arrived around 11 and said the sun had hit Pot Creek an hour before. We got out of camp around 10:10 and were at Harp Falls within ten minutes. One-and-a-half hours later we pulled off at a big beach on the left to scout Triplet Falls. The campsite is up a hill and is a smaller site. We floated through the rapid at about 1:35. I shot the eye of the needle and lost - Mark made it through the squeeze but my boat was wider than the gap.

Only a half-mile later was Hell's Half Mile, the biggest rapid on the river. We stopped to scout (at around 2:10) and had a great lunch. A herd of about 35 big horn sheep walked right by us - within about 25 feet or so. They were all does and fawns and it was really cool having them come so close. Then we scouted the rapid and took off.

A quick stop after the rapid to regroup and we were floating again at 4 o'clock. The commercial group was camped at Rippling Brook and we passed by them on our way to Wild Mountain. We got to camp at 5:00 again that evening, while Marty and Tom continued on to Limestone. Since the rapids were behind us we broke out the IK so we could play more downsteam. Gabe had fun in it that evening. Of course, Chris and I took a hike up the canyon behind the campsite. It was a steep climb to a nice cove with a waterfall entering it. There were also nice views looking out over the campsite.

Our third day on the river started at about 9:45. Within a half-hour we had arived a Limestone. We'll try to get this site in the future, as there is apparently a great hike from here. The ranger told marty and Tom to hike go downstream to catch the trail, which goes and up onto a ridge above the Ladore Sandstone then upstream and into Limestone Canyon.

The float beyond was extremely mellow. Gabe even took the oars for a few strokes. There was an amazing geological formation - a fold - just before we got to Steamboat Rock, which is itself an amazing geological formation - a huge sandstone cliff over a mile long. Steamboat Rock is at the confluence with the Yampa River, and there was not all that much water coming from that way. This is the site of Echo Park, and it truly does have some of the best echoing I've ever heard. An access road comes in here so there are facilities. We decided to stop for lunch and a hike to some Freemont petroglyphs we'd heard about. The petroglyphs are about a 20-minute walk (one way) past the coolness of Whispering Cave along the road up Pat's Canyon (west). We got to the take out at Echo Park at 11:20 and left after our hike and lunch at around 1:45.

Our stop at Echo Park was 2.5 hours long, ending at 1:45. Getting back on the water was a relief, as the day was quite hot. Gabe floated some in the cool water as we moved on toward the "Gates of Whirlpool". The mellow waters ahead gave us the opportunity to try out other boats too.

There was a party at State Line Campground as we passed into Utah at 3:30. Three of the four campsites as Jones Hole were also occupied. It looks like a good hike up Jones Hole Creek, and there is lots of room for multiple parties. We stopped for a while around 4 o'clock to talk to Marty and Tom, who staed at the last site here, and the rangers. Then we pushed on for the mellow float down to our camp at The Cove. There were several small class II riffles through this section and they were lots of fun.

A bunch of bighorns were hanging out at the mouth of Sage Creek. These were all male, and we figured they might have been the mates of the others we'd seen 15 miles upsteram. There was not rush even though I was getting concerned about the time. Camp ended up arriving at around 5:45. Of course, Chris and I took a hike around to check out this area and watched a beautiful sunset.

The long lazy days had made us complacent. We didn't get on the river on day 4 until 9:45. But then we weren't really on the river for another ten minutes because we were dragging the boats off the sand bar in front of the camp. But that was good enough, since the day started with a slow float through Island Park, Ranbow Park, and Little Rainbow Park.

Becky put a hole in Larry's boat just as we entered Split Mountain. This required an early lunch stop, so we ate just above Moonshine Rapid on a rocky beach next to a big rock in the center of the river. Marty and Tom caught up to us here while we're dealing with the patch. There was plenty of eddy for the kayakers to circuit through a nice riffle over and over again.

An hour or so later the patch was set and the river was waiting. We jumped back in our boats to push along downriver. Split Mountain was a bit different than the other canyons on the trip. The river was wide and shallow, with frequent rock gardens. The rapids were hard to distinguish from the non-rapid portions of the flow, expecially in the upper part of this canyon - say to about Mitten Canyon where we stopped at some warm springs. But our time was a bit short so we didn't stop long and were soon heading out.

That was the trip. We made it to the take out at about 4:20. The boat ramp was empty the whole time we were there. Lots of cars and quite a fwe folks at the camp site, but no other boaters. Becky's husband arrived shortly after us and was able to take an 'after' picture of the crew. Great float!!
The drive home wasn't all that great though. We drove to Grand Junction and all the hotel rooms were full all around because of a little league tournament. So we loaded up on coffee at a fast food joint and cruised to Moab. There was a hotel room there, so we stayed the night there - or morning at least since it was midnight when we arrived. The next day was an easy drive back to Albuquerque.