San Juan river salamander raft gear

San Juan River Trip 2017

February 28, 2018// Leave a comment

It was March, and time to finalize plans for this year’s family river trip. We’ve done at least one river trip a year since the kids were babies, and this year, we wanted to do something new. We (the Wigstons) and the Staffords have kids the same age and we’ve been camping and rafting together since Kaija and Zoe were 1. Now they are 9, and we have the two six year olds, Rhys and Roxie too. These kids have grown up on the river together, and they don’t look forward to anything the way they look forward to the annual river trip. We have done Ruby Horsethief canyon on the Colorado River nearly every year, but now we are ready for something bigger. 

Our application for a Gates of Lodore permit came up short, so we opted to try for the San Juan. We knew July would be rugged in the southern reaches of Utah, with temperatures in the100s and potentially low water. We decided to go for it, and easily got a permit the first day they became available. The plans are set! Now it’s time to enjoy spring and await our super hot, super low water trip in the remote desert of southern Utah. 

July soon arrived and trip preparations commenced. We looked at weather reports and river flow graphs, and saw that the desert was in the middle of a monsoon weather pattern. The river was holding steady a 1000cfs. Good news about the river flow, but we weren’t so sure about daily downpours, thunderstorms, and windstorms. When the day of departure finally came, we loaded up and begun the 9 hour drive. We checked in with the other families and all four were on the road ahead of us. The O’Rourkes had the lead, followed by the Staffords, then the Frankels and us. It wasn’t even an hour before the first major downpour, and they came regularly throughout the drive. The last few hours from Moab to Mexican Hat delivered intense rainstorms, huge lightning bolts, and thunder that shook the entire road. We arrived at the boat ramp at about midnight and camped on the rainy sandy beach. Let the desert adventure begin. 

When we were finally rigged and ready to launch, my 6-year old son Rhys decided he wanted to paddle his kayak. He has one of those Liquid Logic Remix 47 kids boats, which is perfect for his size. Nicole decided to kayak with him. We floated casually for a few miles, then quickly approached the sounds of the first rapid. It was a louder rumble than expected, and Rhys and Nicole were way ahead of the three rafts. I expected them to come back to the raft before the rapid, but Rhys wanted to go for it. As they approached the entrance, they suddenly dropped below the horizon line, and all I saw were heads bouncing up and down. It looked way bigger than we thought, so I rowed hard to catch up with them. When I got closer, I could see that they had made it through just fine, Rhys with a look of sheer excitement on his face. I stood to scout the rapid and lined up for a left to right line. The water is so muddy, making it hard to see rocks. Turns out, there is one right in the middle, under the waves. We hit it, and Kaija, my 9 year old crew member launched into the river. Her years of rafting paid off at that moment. She made eye contact, scared but not panicked, reached up and grabbed my outstretched hand and I pulled her quickly into the boat. Kaija entered the raft full of emotions. She was excited and scared, happy to be in the boat, and proud of how she handled it. I was proud of her too, and when her mom and dad came through the rapid in the sweep boat, she relayed the experience to them with all of those emotions at once. They were so proud of her. 

The campsites on the San Juan are amazing. Beaches with tall canyon walls, and lots of terrain to explore. Our second night’s camp was our layover camp. When we got there, we were at first unimpressed, but John’s Canyon delivered. After a few hours of exploring and jumping off of rocks into the river we were enjoying the peace of camp and relaxing. The troop of kids came out of the tamarisk forrest, and excitedly reported that they found a cool waterfall. We played along, expecting a little trickle of water falling into a mud puddle. We followed the kids along the canyon wall and when we came around the corner to the mouth of the side canyon, we were speechless. In front of us was a 50 foot tall, clear waterfall, landing on a large flat rock slab. Below the slab was a giant mud city with several young mud monsters already covered in the sticky black goo. All of us immediately ran under the falls and began to shower in the clean water. We couldn’t believe it. Of all the river trips we’ve been on over the years, this was the first time we’ve been lucky enough to experience one of these side canyon water falls. Needless to say, our layover at John’s Canyon was beyond amazing. 

A few days later, and many miles further down the river, we stopped for lunch at a gorgeous side creek that was spewing water into the river. We spent hours jumping off rocks and swimming until it was finally time to continue downriver. Not 20 minutes into the float after lunch, a squall came in with the force of pure nature. The wind was so strong that we couldn’t move downstream, and we were being pelted with stinging rain drops. We opted to take shelter along the canyon wall, underneath an overhanging cliff, and wait out the storm. Once the wind subsided, we headed down river again, enjoying the cool temperatures and light rain fall. It was a welcome change to the normal desert heat. Zoe, my 9-year-old daughter, suddenly yelled, “Dad look, a water fall”. I looked, and sure enough, water was spilling over the rim of the canyon in a wispy ribbon of glimmering spray. We oohed and ahhed, and then Rhys yelled, “There’s another one!”. Sure enough, there was another, then another, and another. The next 2 hours were spent floating and watching waterfall after waterfall crashing off of the canyon walls. We must have seen 25 water falls over that two hour float, including two side canyons in full-on flash flood. This was the most amazing section of river any of us had ever experienced. 

We finally approached our camp, which was the last camp of the trip, and were once again blown away. The camp was at the mouth of a deep side canyon, and the beach was huge and pristine without a single human foot print to be found. The creek was flowing a few inches deep, with a soft sandy bottom. We immediately tied up the boats, and started walking barefoot up the creek. It twisted up through overhanging canyon walls, with slide falls to jump or slide down into pools. It was a true desert sanctuary. The feeling of euphoria was rampant amongst the group. This spot was so perfect, none of us could even believe it. We kept saying, “Can you believe this?!” 

The last night on a river trip is always a special time. Stories are being told of all the days that led up to this night, kids are running around playing imaginary games, while the adults break out the glow-in-the-dark bocce. The energy level was high until late in the night when we crashed under the enormous tarp, completely content, thinking of how great this river trip really was.

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