AUGUST 2001
CANOE TRIP TO CANYONLANDS NATIONAL PARK

The Route:
Put in at Mineral Bottom, paddle down the Green River to the confluence with the Colorado. Pick up by jet boat for trip upstream to Moab, Utah


Participants:
Jim Bailey  
Mike Reilly
Don Gfroerer
Bill Yacovissi
Bob Alspaugh
Hans Krohn

Distance:  52 miles by water,
no portaging


In Moab at Tag-A-Long outfitter packing up for the expedition
The ride down the canyon wall to Mineral Bottom was really scary.  Very steep switchbacks.
  At the launching stop along the Green River.

Hans and Jim starting out on the trip.

Don shows us some style with his formal river wear.
We paddled down to mile 40 to camp.  This is our first camp on a river sandbar.  
Took a hike away from the river that evening.  Here's Mike on the desert plateau above the river.

Another view from our camp at Ford Bottom.

The fading light created a wonderful view of our camp downstream. You can just see the tents on the sandbar in front of the trees. What a majestic place to camp.
The moon that evening was amazing.  I took my book outside about 10:00 to see if I could actually read by the light.  Not quite but pretty close.
Next day on the river.  

A lunch stop along the river.

A view of our camp at mile 25 from the ridge overlooking the camp. 
Another view from the bluff overlooking the camp. 
This is a view in the other direction looking away from the river across the desert plateau.

The Next day we continued down the river.

Stopped at an excellent swimming hole after lunch.
It was hot so we finally gave in to the inevitable and started floating rather than canoing the river.  Here's Jim being towed by Hans.

Now Hans is in the river along with Mike and I.

Mike and I continuing down river.

Some interesting caves carved out of the rock.
Mike seems strangely happy to be to be going down the river.  Why not?  It was a great trip.
These twin mesas produce an interesting landmark.  Seen in the picture above and a little closer in the picture to the left.
Sunset the third night.  We didn't know what was in store for use later.

Setting up camp at mile 7.
This is the camp an mile 7.  That night a storm blew up and almost blew us off the sandbar. 

Who knows how fast the wind was blowing.  Mike's tent went down. 

My tent, the white Eureka in the picture, rolled over and down the beach even though it was full of gear.  Han's tent suffered a similar fate.  Jim caught my tent and all I could do was get inside to hold it down. 

Fortunately the storm was short.

The view from a hike up a side canyon near camp.

 

 

Our side hikes were limited because of the tamarisk jungle that lined the river. 

We made a couple of attempts to push through it. 

Bob and Hans after a hike through the jungle to look at some ruins.  

Next day we hiked up Water Canyon for a while before moving down river.. 
Further up Water Canyon.  Bob is up on the rock ledge, Hans is in the foreground

Further up Water Canyon.

Moving down river toward the end of the trip.

At last the confluence of the Green and Colorado Rivers.  The end of the trip.
The jet boat from Moab arrived on schedule for the trip up the Colorado.
 

The jet boats stop short of Moab at a place called Potash. 


The river is to shallow above this point so you don't quite get back to Moab by boat.