Green River Raft trip post 5, Desolation Canyon & Gray canyon (9 days, 9/24-10/2, ~3500 cfs)

A bright start.

R, O & N

O

T2 & J

beaver

beaver food

little hike up Rock Creek but not enough time to make it to the petroglyphs (~2.5 mi up canyon)

I was there!

clouds had moved in. looked like rain...

large cat prints in the sand (about 3 1/2"), a mountain lion had been at our campsite just a few hours before. it definitely made us more watchful – regularly scanning the bushes and making sure the little ones were playing in that tree right in the middle of camp. 

petroglyphs inside a tight spot under a huge boulder

in another tight area on the left side of the boulder

Green River Raft trip post 3, Desolation Canyon & Gray canyon (9 days, 9/24-10/2, ~3500 cfs)

A long day with a stop at Mushroom Rock (petroglyphs) on our way to Flat Canyon and a lay-over day.

packing up early

Being October, the low sun gave the light a beautiful "morning' feel most of the day.

L & N

I

that's the beer cooler. on hot versions of this trip it would be sought out regularly. with the mild weather we had, we pretty much had to remember to fetch at least one beer a day or we'd be schlepping it all back to Boulder

Powell's Lighthouse Rock

to mushroom rock. it blends into the background well

it's a big freestanding hulk but it's stealthy

view from behind it. the petroglyphs are on the right side

an interesting panel. lookie there - not a sheep in sight! oh wait! nope there's the sheep. baaa

J saw the right squatting figure as a mother giving birth

L & I

camp at last

J

O discovers another way to hold the Helinox Snoopy chair. things little boys do

Canfire in the camp!

Green River Raft trip post 2, Desolation Canyon & Gray canyon (9 days, 9/24-10/2, ~3500 cfs)

Weather reports for the nearest towns, Price and Vernal, had led us to think that the nighttime temperatures would be in the 40's so we brought a bunch of cold weather clothes (plus, you can never tell this time of year - it could have rained the whole time). But the temperatures during the day tagged the 80's and at night stayed in the 50's so it was quite comfortable.

But man there was a lot of dew on the outside of the rainflies and tons of condensation on the inside. Them's the breaks. Ventilation in a tent doesn't mean a thing when the humidity is 100% and it's colder than the dew point. If only every customer was as understanding as I am about that ;)

I'll just let the flow of the trip wash over you in pictures...

mornings usually looked very much like this

O finds two chairs provide service adequate to his needs

flying buttress erosion pattern - we saw this everywhere on this trip

just behind the waterfront's tangle of Tamrisk and Willow, this hill shows clear signs of heavy animal grazing; the criss-crossing pattern is unmistakable. I once saw an area in Nepal with so much use that this pattern had evolved into full scale moguls like you see on ski slopes

lunch on a big sandbar

where the river slows, it drops at the finest sediment as a slippery and sticky mud

it occurs to me that next time I should just take an actual video of the scenery while spinning

Rock Canyon Camp

my sweetie

out for a walk up the canyon

it's an impressive canyon opening

crazy-narrow fin

the main petroglyph panel at the foot of the canyon's entry cliffs

bighorned sheep. always

upside down = dead

funny little glyph around the corner

hmmm

up the wash

what you get when mud cracks, the cracks get filled with a little different mud, and then turned to stone

no grazing was apparent in the upper canyon

bingo!

after dinner, R & I went searching for another petroglyph panel. failure. all I found  was this lousy circle/spot and a pathetic rendering of a horse