Kayaking the Green

Nurrgle

Nurrgle

Feet on the ground, head in the clouds
Joined
Apr 11, 2012
Messages
227
So I am thinking about a trip down the Green river from Green River Utah to Moab in June. I am considering taking a week and starting below Flaming George or Jumping in at Green River. I have heard both are pretty flat. Anyone do this trip before?
 
I am assuming one or the other as one week will not get you from Flaming Gorge to Green River. The Section below Flaming Gorge will be cold with some rapids to negotiate, after the whitewater section you can continue downriver and it will be flat. The section below Green River ro the confluence would be much more scenic and you can plan to be picked up by one of the many jetboats that run daily and will take you back to Moab. There is also a Daily Section in Gray Canyon just above Green River that runs from the Neffertiti pullout to Swaseys there is some small rapids and great scenery as well as Pictographs to see. The road from Swaseys to the put in at Neffertiti is a bit rough last time I drove it but this would be a fun place to spend a few days camping and running the river.
 
Ohhh dreamy. I haven't done any of it but from what I understand, the water below Flaming Gorge has some rapids. Then Desolation Canyon and Labyrinth Canyon are pretty much flat. I dream of floating rivers like that, I need to get off my arse and buy a canoe or something ASAP! You know you can get a pretty cheap plane ride between Mineral Bottom and Green River? They'll pick you up on the dirt air strip there and fly you back to Green River for like $50 per person. Then you float the river and your vehicle is waiting for you at the end. That would be awesome....
 
The Desolation Trip actually has some pretty decent whitewater and you need a permit to Float. It is an interesting Canyon as everything River Left is the Ute/Ouray Reservation and Everything River Right is BLM. When I was guiding all our passengers were flown in from Moab to the dirt landing strip where we had driven in the day before. Those pilots are amazing, after they would drop their passengers off they would buzz in and out of the side canyons near the air strip.
 
Damn I am going for sure, I like the fly in idea. My dad actually has a nice tail dragger that we fly into the Idaho and Wyoming backcountry sometimes. I wonder if he can fly in and out of that strip you mentioned. The more I think about this trip the more I have to go check it out for myself. Thanks for the killer info:twothumbs:
 
The section below Flaming Gorge is Ladore Canyon and has pretty good solid class IV whitewater. There roughest of which is known as Hell's Half Mile. It also requires a permit (season depending). More info here http://americanwhitewater.org/content/River/detail/id/399/

The section below Ladore, known as Desolation is really mellow the first 20 miles and stays mostly mellow but has two solid class III's at all levels. The most difficult is probably Joe Hutch I ran this last september at low flows. It's a gorgeous run but also requires a permit. I don't know how feasible it is to line up concurrent permits for both Ladore and Deso, but if you go off season if could be done. Fall is actually a great time as the epic bug population (especially in Desolation) is much decreased. http://americanwhitewater.org/content/River/detail/id/1854/

The section from green river town to the confluence is super mellow class I with great camping. Would be epic for sure to run all three sections concurrently, and if you were feeling particularly frisky you could add on Cataract Canyon after the confluence with the Colorado to round out the trip with some archetypal western big water class IV.
 
Sweet, thanks for the advice guys.
 
Hell ya, that would make the trip even sweeter. Walkin in the steps of history!
 
Ounce said:
Linking all those trips together was done once by a guy named John Wesley Powell, he had one arm and wooden boats.
Click to expand...

I just finished reading The Exploration of the Colorado River and Its Canyons. Powell was a scientist first and foremost but he also had a pretty good dry wit that comes through at times. I had the sense from reading it that while he was blown away by the Grand Canyon, he really fell in love with the Green River and the Utah sections of the Colorado. I've never run either, but I practically grew up on Flaming Gorge. It's something else to imagine what it must of been like for him setting out through that country for the first time, before the Bureau of Reclamation had tamed the river.
 
I went down the Grand Canyon with my dad when I was about 14. Since then I have been interested in Powell. Most of the trip I kept thinking about him sitting in that chair, in his crappy wood boat running rapids that had not been tamed by the Lake Powell D-bags. Pretty ballsy dude.
 
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