The canyons behind camp shortly before sunset. Our second night was spent on a sandbar across the river and just upstream from Sheep Bottom. Diane and I had a hard time finding a way through the impenetrable tamarisk along the shore and almost gave up, but we did eventually find the trail through… I was very happy that I was finally able to see the River Faces, especially after Jared and I had tried to hike to them unsuccessfully a few years ago. That hoodoo on the right reminds me of my favorite one over in The Needles. I had actually planned to camp here the first night, but I think the sandbar we stopped on was a better choice. Here’s a look up Little Bridge Canyon as we floated by. I rigged up that sun shade just before this trip and it worked out pretty well! Here’s my inflatable kayak, ready for our second day on the Colorado River. We really couldn’t have asked for much better weather on this trip, but a few more clouds and less smoke would have been nice! While the temperatures during the day were a little warmer than I would have liked, it was almost perfect in the evening, morning and overnight. There was nice light on the canyon walls and a good reflection on the water just before sunset. I went for a late evening walk along the shore of the sandbar. We spent our first night at the Musselman Island Camp just past the mouth of Musselman Canyon.Īn evening view from Musselman Island Camp. Here’s a shot of our group (minus me, of course) as we began searching for a campsite for the night. I stopped for a quick hike into The Grotto. I’ve taken many photos looking down to the river from up there, so it was nice to finally see the view from down here.

Our next stop was to visit the large petrified logs located at Horse Bottom.Īlthough the petrified wood here is not near as nice as what is found in Petrified Forest National Park, I thought it was pretty cool that the logs were eroding out of the sandstone, which I don’t recall seeing anywhere else before.įloating below Dead Horse Point. We stopped for lunch below the remains of this mud granary located in a small alcove along the river. 1 are the remains of some kind of old military landing craft. We were on the water by 8:30am and slowly floating downstream. Just like the rest of the western United States, the air was filled with smoke from wildfires and would pretty much stay that way for the entire trip. We rigged our boats at the Potash Boat Ramp just after sunrise. I guess we will need at least five days for that trip! The nice thing about Meander Canyon is that they will pick you up with the Jetboat anywhere along the way, since they pass by most days on their way to Spanish Bottom. I guess that means we will have to come back another time to see the rest of the canyon! This float was kind of a trial run so I could figure out how far we could make it on this flat water with Inflatable Kayaks, since when I get around to floating Stillwater Canyon we will absolutely need to make it to The Confluence, or we will miss our ride back on the Jetboat Shuttle. I had hopes that we would be able to make it to The Confluence of the Green River and Colorado River in four days and three nights, but in the end we decided not to paddle as much as we could have and only made it to The Loop.

Although Diane swore that she would never go on another river trip with me after our swift float through Slick Rock Canyon, I managed to talk her into giving it one more try after promising her that this would be all flat water with no rapids! Thankfully, she really enjoyed this trip and I think she will definitely be coming with me on future flat water adventures! I had such a great time in Labyrinth Canyon two years ago at this same time of the year, so I was really looking forward to another trip similar to that. We were going to be spending the next couple of days on a relaxing float through Meander Canyon on the calm waters of the Colorado River into the heart of Canyonlands National Park. On Thursday morning Diane and I woke up extra early at 3:30am and headed down to Moab where we drove through The Portal on our way to the Potash Boat Ramp and met up with our friends Jackson, Amy and Chris just after sunrise. Floating from the Potash Boat Ramp to The Loop | Average CFS: 2,660

Meander bends