River: Green River Put-In: Sand Wash (RM 97)/ Take-out: Swasey Beach (RM 12)Class: II - III Flows: 1,800 c.f.s Duration: 8 DaysPermits: BLM Vernal, UtahMore Desolation Canyon PhotosBright tailed and bushy eyed, that's how are started my first Desolation Canyon trip. July 2001: Utah had been in the grips of deep and growing drought. The Green River was pushing a measley 1,800 cfs through Desolation Canyon as we prepared for the our humpback chub population estimate survey. Over July-August, we planned on completing three trips through the canyn to create a mark recapture population estimate. Each trip would consist of two crews, one would work the lower 45 miles of the canyon and the other would work the upper 45 miles. Each crew had 8 people and 4 boats, 2 oar rigs and 2 sport boats.
Sport Boats??? ...Picture the Zoidac boats that the navy seals use or the boats Green Peace use. Infaltable tubes, a rubber outer floor, a solid aluminum inner floor, and a solid transom holding a 40 H.P. motor. Now imagine guiding it through rocky class III rapids. I did constantly before I did my first trip. I had run these boats in high water conditions through class II water, but the thought of running 90 miles of fairly technical ROCKY water was keeping me up at night. These people thought I knew what I was doing and I didn't want to look foolish.
From Moab, the shuttle is a solid day of driving if you're running the whole thing. We typically left Moab by 6 am dropped the boats in the water by noon and sent drivers off to Green River with the trucks and trailers. The shuttle drivers would fly back the next morning. A small plane would drop them on the plateau above the river and they would hike down. the flight was around $100 per person. Another option is to just leave your rigs and trailers at the put-in and have a company like "
River Runners Transport" of Vernal run you vehicles to the take-out for about $175 per vehicle (2 min).
We plan our trips for 8 days, but our milage shedule is quite different from the typical float trip. The crew working the lower streatch heads out the day the shuttle drivers leave and motor the first 45 miles of the canyon in about a day total time. We stay at specific sites which the our program has monitored for more than a decade. After sampling for 7 nights they motor out to the Swasey Beach take-out. The upper crew spends the night fending off the mobs of mosquitos at the Sand Wash put-in. I know it's the desert but if you come here be prepared for some crazy biting bugs!
On my first trip, I was on the upper crew, I didn't sleep so well listening to the mosquitos planning my demise just outside my tent. Day Two, we covered a whopping 7 miles and set into sampling. The majority of sampling for humpback chubs is done with nets called trammel nets. they entangle the fish and have to be checked every 2 hours. Our netting schedule starts around 3 or 4 pm and we do our last check around 11-12 pm. The next day nets are set a 5 am and checked until about 11-12 am when the nets are pulled. Then we eat, pack, and head to our next site to start it all agian. In addition to netting we also electrofish at night. Eletrofishing is done from a special boat with a large generator and a special device which regulates pulses of electricity which are sent out through the water to stun fish. I won't go into all the detail of it other than to say it's very loud, and a little dangerous.
It's been so long all the days of sampling blend together now but there were many details of the canyon that still stand out in my mind. First, as you get about 20 miles down river the canyon grows into a deep, stepped, winding gorge that takes your breath away. The formations are very unique and dramatic dashed with sparse pine trees that seem oddly out of place. Desolation Canyon is deeper than the Grand Canyon at Bright Angle Falls (over 5000 ft)...Wow. Second, bears, black bears to be exact. This place is in the desert, a desolate desert. The last thing I expected to see or worry about were bears. Third, the hiking was an endless adventure. lucky we have large enough crews to afford several hours of hiking each day. From crystal clear creeks like Rock Creek, to hidden cliff dwellings, and even an old still (whiskey I believe), I found something new on every hike.
Finally, the boating is fun, even in low water. I would rather have run one of the oar rigs, but I had a realy good time motoring a sport boat. All of the rapids are straight forward. We scouted Streer Gulch and Three Fords. Three Fords is the biggest rapid at most levels up to about 10,000 cfs. I remember after I ran it I said to the outher biologist in the boat that it was the biggest thing I'd ever run a sport boat through. She looked at me like she had just trusted her life to a 4 year old. She got over it. As we moved down to the lower canyon, which is called Grey Canyon, the rapids and riffles became increasingly shallow. Often we had to pull our motor up and use canoe paddles to guide our over sized boat through the shallows. This was most challanging in Coal Creek Rapid. Coal Creek is a mix of a couple of good sized holes and lots and lots of sneaky flat rocks. It's pretty interesting trying to catch a small eddy in a 1,500 lb boat with a canoe paddle!
As our trip ended we headed off to the traditional finish of every Desolation Canyon River trip....Rays Tavern in Green River. Great burgers and steaks, plus free pool. Hope to see you out there.
Following logs will cover different details about changing flows and a few side ventures.
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This mix contains 17 unique plant species covers all western states for locations below 7000' in elevation. The Second mix we just planted at the end of last fall in random locations around our property to provide color and shape in our very open desert yard. The Southwest wildflower seed mix is very colorful and designed for zero maintainance after it comes up. We're in the middle of a week of March snow, but we are looking forward to watching the progress through this spring. The seed mix is designed for southern California across to New Mexico. Areas in Utah such as Moab or Saint George are ideal for this mix. If you decide to try some out for yourself or get some as a gift for a friend tell Shirley hello for me!
