Miscellaneous - Canyonlands NTL Park Canoe Trip - Part 2

Taking a hike in the Colorado River.  Due to a severe drought, the water levels in the Colorado are very low. There are a lot of sandbars and it is hard to see where the water is shallow. In many places it was too shallow to paddle and we just got out and walked, pulling the canoe alone behind us until we got to deeper water. A few times we got really stuck which was not fun, but at least we had nice scenery. On the positive side, the sandbars made good campsites.

Easy to daven with Kavanah here. Mornings were cold until the sun made it over the cliffs. Missing 9 for a great outdoor minyan!

Petrified Logs. Bob sitting on a petrified log. I am balancing on a petrified log that is eroding out of the surrounding sandstone! There were many broken logs at that spot, one in several pieces that must have been 50 feet long altogether. Also, lots of bits and pieces of petrified wood. No, I did not collect any to take home. Bob wouldn’t let me.

Ancestral Puebloan structure in Indian Canyon. The term Anasazi is no longer politically correct. What a view!

The Grotto. Classical concerts are held here. I’m not making this up. For only $375 you can “Take a jet boat down the Colorado River through spectacular red rock canyons to ‘nature’s own concert hall’ (The New York Times) – an acoustically perfect wilderness Grotto carved from the surrounding red rock walls. “  GROTTO CONCERT I: BEETHOVEN IN THE ARCHES . Totally ridiculous. FYI - We sang a bit and were not at all impressed with the acoustics.

It got too hot in the sand to walk barefoot during the day

We Ride in an ATV. The group riding these ATV’s were part of a bunch of really nice guys on a men and boys Christian Retreat for the weekend. We must have met most of the 100 who were there. Maybe they did some Christian stuff at some point, but we ran into them on ATVs, motorbikes, motorcycles, and hanging out at our beach. I can imagine how they pitched this weekend it to their wives, “Honey, we are going with our brethren to pray in the desert for three days.” This group offered us a ride on their ATVs after letting us know that that they were safe because, “We are pastors”. After reassuring them that we were not serial killers either, we took them up on their offer, for a 2 mile ride up canyon. We walked back. Bob rode with Pastor Jeremy from Durango, and I rode with Pastor Terry from Orange County California. So much fun!

Relaxing at the Beach in the Afternoon

Cataract Canyon Sign - a photo op

We Were Not Alone. Unlike the Green where once you start canoeing there is no way out for 53 miles, several jeep roads connect to the Colorado River. I already mentioned the ATVs. But we also came across people on mountain bikes, motorcycles, motorbikes, and Jeeps.

But most of all, while the two of us quietly paddled down the river, we ran into many commercial rafting outfits including OARS, Mild 2 Wild, Colorado River and Trail Expeditions, and Western River Expeditions. They looked like raft armadas gently motoring down the river.

Our favorite was this outfitter who had a group doing yoga while rafting.

Our 53* Mile, 10 Day, Canyonlands NTL Park Canoe Trip - Part 1

We are back in civilization! And by civilization, I mean regular phone and internet coverage. Now I can blog about our river trip which was April 27th - May 6th.

The first time Bob and I did the 53 mile Stillwater Canyon wilderness canoe/camping trip through Canyonlands National Park was 29 years ago, and it was also our first ever time camping. How hard could it be?

We set up our newly purchased tent for the first time in our living room before we left just to make sure we could do it.

We arranged for each of the three kids to stay with a different family from Motzei Shabbos to the following Friday, and boy, was that a logistical accomplishment.  

We got up at 3am Sunday morning and caught a flight at 5am.

We flew to Denver, then on to Grand Junction, Colorado, rented a car, and drove to Tex’s Riverways in Moab, Utah.

We were loaded into a truck, driven for about an hour on a 4 wheel drive road, with the last bit a stretch of very scary switchbacks down a cliff, and were dropped off with a canoe, our gear, 3 life jackets, 3 paddles, and a camping toilet at Mineral Bottom on the shore of the Green River.

Tex’s told us we would be picked up on Thursday morning at about 10 am by their jetboat, 53 miles downstream at Spanish Bottom on the Colorado River after it merged with the Green. (Motors are allowed on the Colorado.)

There was no other way out and, pardon the expression, no way to bail, before then. No roads, no motorized boats allowed on the Green, and unclimbable cliffs. Even if we managed to climb the cliffs we would be in the middle of nowhere, miles from any road, in the desert with no water to be found. 

Also, we were told, be sure to go no further than Spanish Bottom; there are extremely dangerous rapids shortly thereafter.

What if we didn’t show up Thursday morning? Then they would send out a search party. If there was a problem before then, a ranger usually canoed down the river every few days.   

What could go wrong?

And, in defiance of every expectation per murphys law, nothing did! We had an amazing time and made it home in time for Shabbos as planned. And we did the same trip 3 more times over the years, each time going for more days, once taking our boys.

This time we opted to canoe down Meander Canyon on the Colorado River instead of the Green, still in Canyonlands. Partly because we had never done it; partly because there is daily traffic on the Colorado, and we are old enough to be a little more cautious doing this sort of thing on our own. We had no trouble imagining the headlines, “Two elderly canoeists disappear in Canyonlands National Park…” 

Thankfully, we made it back, and in one piece. Two pieces, actually-one for each of us. It was a fantastic trip. (All is not well with the world though, as we are just finding out about now.)

*Technically, this trip is only 50 miles, but I figure we did at least 53. “Now, all the way over to the right bank! Now hard to the left! Back to right!“

You would probably like to see some pictures. The challenge is selecting which ones. (To say I took a lot of pictures would be a huge understatement.) It is quite amazing I never dropped my camera or phone into the water!

Here Are a Few Photos to Give You an Idea

Our Photogenic Canoe

It Would Be Hard to Choose a Bad Campsite

Views from the Water

Coming next: Views from Land, Misc, and Flowers!