Green River: Deso-Gray 2024

We put in at the Sand Wash Launch south of Myton, UT, and floated to the Swasey Boat Ramp just north of Green River, UT.

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Green River - Desolation/Gray 2024

20240531

I drove to Brad's house to transfer my gear to his car for the carpool to Vernal, UT. We ended up turning north at Rifle toward Meeker then west toward Rangely. Turning north on the Deserado Mine road a few miles before Rangely provided a shortcut to the Elks Spring to Dinosaur highway. The group met at the Vernal Brewery for dinner.

I stayed at the Sage Motel - a very basic place. I took about 15 minutes to figure out how to turn the TV on and reset the DirecTV device. Fortunately the sheets and towels were clean.

20240601 [16182 cfs]

At 6:30AM, I walked down the street from the hotel to a coffee shop, but it didn't open until 7. I went back to the lobby of the motel I'd stayed in and fortunately they had coffee and simple breakfast items. Brad picked me up about 7:40AM. It took us two hours to arrive at the Sand Wash put in. The road from Myton to Sand Wash Launch has been significantly improved with a longer stretch paved and the dirt section graded. This probably comes from all the new deeper petroleum wells in the region operated by Ovintiv my last former employer.

Several groups had already launched ahead of us. We were the last for the day. Everybody loaded boats efficiently. The ranger worked with Steve to get us checked out handing out the boat tags. Steve gave us a quick important safety meeting just prior to our launch.

Once floating down the river, Steve organized us into two groups of four boats strapped together with small 2.3Hp outboard motors mounted on one of the boats in each group. It enabled us to quickly motor the 18 miles down the flat part of the river to our first campsite.

Kraig prepared a delicious tenderr steak dinner. Afterward, most of us ended up back on the boats drinking whiskey and socializing.

20240602 [16582 cfs]

Bob made coffee from his coffee station. Kraig fed us with scrumpcious egg bacon biscuit sandwhiches. The boats got loaded and we drifted at the river's pace.

We ran two minor rapids today. On one, Scott and Nancy found the biggest wave to soak themselves in. Harry found himself sideways in a big wave and got flipped. Jack and Evan were able to grab his boat. Harry climbed onto another boat. Eventually Harry and his boat were reunited.

We stopped at Mushroom Rock. Pulling off the river created a challenge as a result of the landmark cottonwood tree. It had partially fallen over onto the beach and into the water creating a strainer at the ideal pullout location. Steve managed to land our raft just down stream of the tree branches stuck in the river. Everyone else pulled out in various places with varying difficulty. Brad and Kevan found themselves unable to stop and were carried by the current further down river out of sight. They'd ultimately found a tamarisk invested eddy to hangout in and wait for us.

Scattered groups of us wandered up to Mushroom rock to have a look at it and examine the petroglyphs.

We arrived at the Cedar Ridge campsites just as the wind picked up. Shortly after our arrival an emergency helicopter flew overhead. It proceeded to circle before landing. A short while later it took off headed up Cedar Ridge Canyon and then took off and landed several times before leaving. Apparently it was performing a rescue. We never obtained the details. After it left, another helicopter flew down Cedar Ridege Canyon then turned north heading up the Green river.

In the evening, Steve made a fire and Greg and Chris entertained us with guitar music and song. Snoop played his 'Jail Break' song to rich laughter.

20240603 [Cedar Ridge; 15330 cfs]

Camp was quiet when I awoke this morning. Much of me wanted to sleep longer. Then I saw Bob moving about in the kitchen signalling that he was preparing coffee which stimulated me to move into action.

Snoop made a breakfast of blueberry pancakes to accompany Bob's coffee. I cleaned up and stowed the fire pit. It required a little water as the coals were still hot. It was 9:30 before we launched or over three hours from when I emerged from my tent.

The river level was slowly dropping, but more than enough water flowed to send us down the river at about 6 miles per hour. Steve rowed for about an hour and then I took us through a couple of small rapids before turning the raft back to him ahead of Steer Ridge rapid. He managed to send us over the left-of-center rock that he said he'd hit all the previous times on this river.

We became merged with another group of rafters at the Rock Creek ranch. Eventually we passed them.

The first campsite at Three Canyons was taken so we drifted the very short distance to the second campsite. A small rapid had to be traversed to get near shore. Steve asked me to jump out of the boat about 20 feet from shore as we passed some willows. He said it wasn't deep as the paddle hit the bottom. So I jumped out with the bow rope and as I walked into the deepening water toward shore I eventually found myself floating in very deep water only a few feet from the shore! Crawling and scraping up the steep muddy side of the underwater ravine I managed to emerge soaking from the river to tie up the boat - a surprise bath and cooling off!

The Three Canyons campsite we took is a nice one very suitable for a large group. I walked around the perched meander. Others played botchy (sp) ball or capture the flag using guns that fire gelatenous pellets. The weather was a little unstable with an occassional gust of wind and a drop or two of rain. As the evening matured into night things settled down. Snoop broke out a nice candle lamp and Chris strung LED lights.

I was still feeling tired so I headed to bed early.

20240604 [Three Canyon; 14571 cfs]

The river miles went by quickly on this stretch. We rode a number of fun rapids.

We stopped at Wire Fence campground. A commercial group was there but one of the guides run upstream to let us know that they were just having lunch and would be leaving soon. We pulled over relaxing until they drifted on down the river.

Tonight Brad and I were responsible for dinner. I'd brought tacos. The meal turned out to take longer than I expected to re-heat the taco beef, rice, and the canned refried beans. We also had to cut up lettuce, onions, and cilantra. Brad's help was invaluable. Kraig wanted to make a pineapple upside down dessert so we kept the dessert we'd brought in the cooler.

The setting sunlight through the camp was beautiful. The stars crawled out filling the sky at this campsite with it's broad view of the sky.

20240605 [Wire Fence; 13984 cfs]

I arrived at the coffee station before Bob this morning so I threw myself into making it with Snoop's help. Brad heated his frozen casseroll breakfast for us.

Steve started his instructions for the day but couldn't finish before the current grabbed his boat and we were off to the races and the first rapid. From Wire Fence campground there are two immediate rapids. The first splashed us around a little. The second sent Chris under his flipped duckie. Greg managed to turn the duckie boat back over and pull Chris on board his raft. Steve and I loaded the duckie onto Steve's boat. We spent the next mile of the river trying to reunite Chris with his boat and in the end he wanted a break. With that news I jumped in and paddled the duckie for a spell before turning it over to the teenagers, Evan and Jack, to ride some class II rapids in it.

Greg the navigator pulled us over to river right at just the right time to pull into our last campsite. It was not very visible and near the bottom of a riffle. Everyone manage to eddy out without problems. This campsite felt like our hottest on the float with loads of tall grass, willows, and tamarisk. I took the short walk to an overlook of the camp. Along the way I disturbed about nine Big Horn sheep and four yews grazing. It became clear they hang out in the area often hidden from the river using the morning shade of the ridgeline cliff. Venturing a little further south back toward the river I could see the Easter Egg group (brightly colored rafts) camping at the Rattlesnake campsite just below Rattlesnake rapid.

Greg set up a large tarp to shade us from the sun, but most folks hung out on their rafts where the air was cooler.

20240606 [School Section Canyon; 14196 cfs]

Chirping birds woke many of us around 4AM in the morning. I managed to doze back off to sleep until coffee time around 6AM.

The river gods smiled on us yet again. The river level came up slightly requiring wetting the soles of one's sandles to get to the groover. The wind didn't materialize and the bugs stayed away for our final float day.

We arrived at Swasey's Boat Ramp in about three hours. It only took us roughly thirty minutes to load gear into the shuttled vehicles parked and waiting for us. Some of us drove into Green River to eat at Ray's. It's a mystery, but those burgers satiate the taste buds stupendously even after enjoying many delicious meals on the river. The pictures in the back room of dramatic river waves and stuck and flipped boats are worth a long gander.

With goodbyes shared, I rode back with Brad and Kevan to the Front Range and home.