Supertacoistas, just to show that I can do more than merely sit in my rocking chair and reminisce about the hero I once pretended to be, here is a little dittie I did just a couple of years ago (and might do again soon with the current snowpack in the Price River drainage being what it is). Since I was unable to “round up twice the usual number of suspects” I had to venture into the state of Deseret by myself.

Back in the 1980’s I had mapped and assessed mineral resources in the San Rafael Swell for the USGS, which was little more than getting paid to do what I would have been doing anyway. I can see no higher calling for man such as myself than to walk around out in the desert drawing lines on paper, but I digress. Since those halcyon days of yore I have been back many times for canyoneering and general back country tomfoolery with a variety of partners in crime. This time, however, I would be doing my own solo biathlon of peddling and paddling.


The plan was to paddle the San Rafael River through the Little Grand Canyon of the San Rafael, eddying out and side canyoneering as much as possible. Since a second vehicle to run the shuttle was not available I took my mtn. bike to ride the shuttle from put-in to take-out, then break it down and stuff it into my canoe. An abundance of dirt roads throughout the Swell made this plan imminently practical, and also quite fun. First night was spent in a grove of tamarisks and cottonwoods near the put-in northeast of the Swell, assuring that I was well hydrated for the daunting task ahead.


The following morning I unloaded my canoe at river’s edge and loaded it up with gear before driving to the takeout with my bike in the back of the pickup. The ride from the swinging bridge at the mouth of Buckhorn Wash to the put-in at Fuller Bottom was probably around 30 miles on good dirt roads. I was fortunate that the Anasazi had been here before me and left valuable beta along the way.


With shuttle ride complete, and a truly great ride it was, I broke down the bike, put it into my boat, and shoved off. Now in the past, I have backpacked the San Rafael River when it was flowing at about 10 cfs, which is actually pretty nice on those triple digit days in July and August. When it gets too hot you just lay down, roll around, and Bob’s your uncle. The San Rafael River is usually only boatable for a week or two in the spring, and only in a fat run-off spring at that, so timing is everything. This particular spring it was flowing at around 500 cfs when I put on, which is pretty phat for this river.


By and by, a flotilla of other boats had eddied out and their crews had ascended a trail leading up to a pictograph panel. No doubt the Ancient Ones had been recording valuable hydrographic information and these wise boaters wanted to see what they might be getting into.


As the day wore on the clouds dissipated somewhat and the temps rose nicely. Once past the outer portions of the Swell I got further into the upper reaches of the Little Grand Canyon, and side canyons beckoned. Actually that’s not completely true, the side canyons were begging, actually pleading, to be explored. Eddying out and checking them out was the only merciful thing to do, under the circumstances.


On one of these side canyon treks I met a charming couple from Boulder who were paddling a tandem rubber duckie. They had limited cargo carrying capacity in their duckie and thus were bereft of the necessary beer provisions to survive a night out in the desert. Being the gentleman that I am, I rescued this poor couple from a terrible fate. After a full day of side canyoneering we eddied out near Virgin Spring Canyon to set up camp.


The following morning, we diligently applied ourselves to a leisurely start with many cups of coffee. One does not want to rush these things, as there is a very delicate balance in the natural order of things in the desert that the wise are loathe to upset. Upon achieving said balance, we paddled a short distance downstream to the next side canyon demanding an exploration.


The charming couple from Boulder elected to camp early and explore more side canyons while I paddled out to the bridge at Buckhorn Wash. They didn’t have any more beer! God I hope they made it out OK. On the paddle out the current seemed a bit faster and USGS flow data would later reveal that the San Rafael River was flowing at 600 cfs that day. At that flow there were no convenient eddies near the take out so I did my best Admiral Farragut imitation, damned the torpedoes, and rammed the bank at full speed ahead to get my bow up and over the lip. Although it had been my intention to camp out in Buckhorn Wash, God’s own wind storm blew in and deposited sand EVERYWHERE! I booked it for home.


Some notes on the San Rafael River: Typically a flow of 200 cfs is considered minimum for reasonable paddling. Normal flow for about 11 ½ months out of the year varies from 5 to 40 cfs, so a week or two in May in a normal year is about all you get. Many years are not normal. This site will give you real-time flow data, as well as various parameters of water quality (temp, conductivity) https://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/rt Bear in mind that if the river is frozen over the hydrograph will be flat-lining. When I paddled the San Rafael River it was running from 400 to 650 cfs for over a month, which is very unusual. A week after I got off the river on this trip it peaked at 1100 cfs, which would have made the run through the upper and lower Black Box downstream from the Little Grand Canyon an epic run. If you survived you’d probably feel like brave Ulysses. Additionally, if it flows high like this again then paddling the Muddy River through the Chutes in the southern part of the Swell is highly recommended. It takes an unusually high run-off year for Muddy Creek to be boatable at all, and it is class 1 above and below the Chutes, and class 3 through the Chutes. However, a more wonderful desert river run through the slot canyon of the Chutes likely does not exist.