Desolation and Gray Canyons

We just spent 7 days rafting on the Green River in Utah through Desolation and Gray Canyons. It was an 84-mile trip through some amazing canyons. There were 61 named rapids, mostly class II, II+ and III with one class IV thrown in for good measure. There were 24 of us on the trip, 10 of whom where under the age of 8. Needless to say, it was a very kid-friendly trip. There were six families (and 6 raft) on the trip and a good time was had by all. This was Cullin's third multi-day river trip and his longest to date. He did great and had a great time. Out of 61 rapids, he only walked around 2 of them.

The itinerary for the trip went something like this:

June 28 - Leave Lyons at 1:30pm and drive 5 hrs to Fruita, CO. Set up camp in the blazing sun and head to the local pizza joint with some of our fellow river rats. Went back to the campsite at the Colorado River State Park and tried to get Cullin to go to sleep for 2 hrs. He was just too excited.

June 29 - Hit the local greasy spoon in Fruita, load up on ice and gas and drive to Roosevelt, UT, our jump off for the trip. Blazing hot sun, winding roads, terrible nap for Cullin. Finally left the hardtop road in the booming metropolis of Myton, UT (it makes Lyons look big) after one more fill up and more ice. Drove the last 35 miles to the put-in on terrible washboarded roads which then became a horribly washed out desert wash that had recently flooded. It was a seriously rough road. We finally made it to the put-in and as soon as we jumped out of the truck, we were literally descended upon by hordes of mosquitos. These were the worst mosquitos I'd seen in a very long time. I've only seen them this bad three times in over 30 years. Bug suits for everyone. It was hot, the bugs were ridiculous and Cullin was barely hanging in there. Finally at 11pm, I had the raft mostly rigged and went to bed.

June 30 - Woke up early, had a quick breakfast, met the rest of our group, battled the bugs and finally shoved off around 10:30am. We had a long day on the oars to try to get into Desolation Canyon proper, where the bugs were supposedly not as bad. We rowed almost 20 miles. We were all beat. Got to camp, set up, battled the bugs, had a quick dinner and then tried to get Cullin to bed. He was so tired from lack of sleep, a bit dehydrated and just plain beat that we couldn't get him to go to sleep, much less just calm down. We were actually starting to get worried. When we thought it couldn't get any worse, he threw up in our tent, all over the sleeping bags. At this point I was envisioning a helicopter rescue the next morning to fly him out. Seriously. However, we were able to get him to (finally) drink some gatoraid and eventually fall asleep.

July 1 - Woke up with a new kid on our hands! Happy, rested and feeling good. A quick breakfast and we were on the river and in short order out of the bugs. Praise the Lord. We had a short day, only about 10 miles and finally got into Desolation Canyon, away from the bugs and the rapids started showing up. We camped at a really nice beach, had a steak dinner and life was good. There was a rattle snake at our camp which was pretty interesting. Particularly since it was in the bushes right behind our tent.

July 2 - After a good nights sleep, we got up and hit the water. We rowed another big day, 18 miles or so to Chandler Rapid. We found a GREAT campsite with a big beach, nice tent sites a rapid, all the amenities. We camped, partied, had our first costume party - Pirates and Princesses' and the kids had a blast.

July 3 - Layover day. Takin' it easy. Leisurely hot breakfast, playing on the beach, swimming, swimming the rapids, some kayaking, sand castles, good naps, swinging in the hammock, cold beers - what more could you ask for. It was a great day. We again had another party night with the theme being Cirque du Soleil. Kids and parents went all out. We even broke out LCR, everyone's favorite dice game. The Lawhon's actually won a few hands! Bout damn time.

July 4 - Happy Birthday America! Today was the day with the big rapids - Joe Hutch being the biggest. This was a 'new' rapid as there was a flash flood last fall that significantly changed the rapid making it a class IV boat flipper. All the kids and moms walked the rapid and all the dads gave it their best shot. Some of us ran it well, some not so well but everyone made it through upright and all was good. We had a few more miles to go to our camp for the night and one more class III rapid - Wire Fence. Made camp, had a big 4th celebration until the storm rolled through and enjoyed a sandy night in the tent complements of the howling wind that was blowing so hard the sand was coming right through the mesh on the tent.

July 5 - Our second to last day on the river. Can't believe it's going by so fast. We had a pretty good class III rapid right off the bat that Cullin and Allison walked. I think the walk was worse than the rapid. Anyway, better safe than sorry. You can't drown from the bank. *Note to self - run it next time. After running the rapid - Three Fords, we had a long day in store with lots of class II and II+ rapids. Alli spent a good part of the day on the oars. There was one big class III that we had to run with Cullin because there was no way to walk around it. It was one of the bigger rapids on the river and the kid snoozed right through it! We finally pulled into camp about 10 miles from the take out and got started setting up camp. One of the guys on the trip was putting up his tent and accidentally hit himself in the face with the end of a tent pole, ripping a pretty good gash in his nose. So bad that he had to be rowed out to the take out that night and had to drive 2.5 hrs to Grand Junction to get stitched up. This was a HUGE bummer on our last night but we managed and he turned out OK. We had a good night on a nice beach despite the accident.

July 6 - We got up early, got the boats loaded and headed to the closest take out where we met up with our crew that had left the night before to do the hospital run. After some boat loading, we sent the family to Grand Junk to be reunited with their dad and the remaining 5 boats ran the last 10 miles of the river. It was a great day on the water. Alli rowed all day, including 9 class II, II+ rapids. I just sat in the front of the raft and kept the sun off both Cullin while he was napping and my cold beer. It was one of the best days on the water. We finally pulled into the take out and started the process of breaking down gear, loading trailers, finishing beers, etc. We were all sad that the trip was almost over but it was nice to begin thinking about food (that someone else would cook for us and clean up) and a shower. We all rallied to the world famous bar in Green River known as Ray's Tavern for beers, burgers and good times. From there it was onto the Best Western for perhaps the best shower I've had in years.

July 7 - Breakfast with the remaining river rats in our crew at the hotel and then hit the road. A quick stop off in Thompson Springs, UT to see some 8000 year old rock art (amazing) and then on back to Colorado. It was nice to be heading home but we were all sad to be going back to the real world.

It was such an amazing trip and we're so lucky that our family could go. Cullin is a river vet at this point (he's done more long raft trips by the age of 3 than I'd done by the age of 25!) and he's raring to go again.

Can't wait for the next river trip...