Late Summer in Deso-Grey

The theme of the summer's trips definitely seems to be "after years of"... So... After years of floating the green river daily and wondering what lie upstream, we finally snagged a deso-grey permit this year and got to pack raft through it!

No week long trip can start it seems without some drama... Leading into the trip solidly we had a few drop out last minute and most of the rest of the crew seemed threatening to drop out, myself included. Seems like work is universally consuming everyone right now, so feeling wholly unready for a week of travel thru the remote regions of Utah, but also wholly needing it, I set off for green river to start our complicated shuttle logistics. Andrew and I met up in green River to drop a car and start the trek to the put in, I had planned to come from the north per so many recommendations online but, as luck would have it, udot closed the highway thru Indian canyon, joy, we would get to try wrinkles road which has a reputation, with no info as the sun was setting! It turns out the road was fine, in better shape actually than the road in from Myton to the north, it even had occasional cell service due to an unexpected oil and gas chemicals plant. 

Sand Wash at night as intermittent electical storms move through

A collection of moments

Day 1:

A ranger loosely resembling a young and more river-rat esque Zach galafanakis checked out permits 

Flat. So flat that even Lindsay went for a bit of a swim in the murky water. It was sandy bottomed but i was surprised at the fish life in these waters, we did not expeience anywhere near this number of jumps or other signs further downstream, that is heartening in a world where it seems like so much is on the decline.

The Desolation Canyon put in seems remote, i mean its 30+ miles down a dirt road regardless of how you get there, but rounding the corner above Tabyago riffle, we are greeted with a white Tacoma, presumably someone from the Ute Reservation. I cant help but wonder what they are doing here, maybe just here to enjoy the river? I sure would if i lived closer. 

A moment of peace at our first camp

We make it to camp, which is set back amongst the trees and shrubs. It seems we humans are drawn to corridors among the shrubs as this camp ends up ranking high amongst the group, though i prefer open beach camps. We enjoyed dinner under the cottonwoods and took a brief walk to a large rock outcropping behind camp to see a small petroglyph panel.

Day 2:

I woke up shortly after dawn and made my way back down to the river while half the group was sleeping. A beaver was already at work in the river, swimming in the eddy next to camp taking advantage of the waning summer days.  

After a short time on the river we pull over to try and find a turtle shell print in the rock. We all get out and fan out, scouring the cliffbands looking for a layer that seems like it would hold fossils. We all overlook the obvious and after 15 minutes of looking, we glance over to the opbvious boulder at the base of the cliffs holding a perfect turtle shell imprint on its top. 

The rapids begin, though haltingly. We ran through rock house rapid which was nothing much to talk of. The river picks up pace a bit but remains largely flat. Somewhere around lunchtime we have made it to mushroom rock and we take a quick detour to see the petroglyphs. On the way back I did a quick V-tree scramble traverse of a funky old cottonwood.

The crew examining mushroom rock

We eventually find camp, a beautiful beach in an Eddy between two drops with steep canyon walls above, with a first class site overlooking the river. We are around our makeshift dining table, a giant triangular slab, complete with evening entertainment of a herd of big horns navigating their way to the rim as the sun fell.

Everyone gathered around the dinner table for some desert, worms and dirt!

Day 3:

Shortly after setting off, I spot two massive birds circling the right canyon wall, as we get closer one lands. I bearly catch a glimpse, it's two giant golden eagles gorging themselves on a breakfast catch.

Desolation, peaceful in the morning light

We have some stout winds to look forward to today, or so the forecast says, never the less we take a quick detour to see the flat canyon petroglyph panel and wonder what those who came before us were trying to convey. 

Back on the water we are met with the occasional stout gust but things are mostly workable. Just after Dripping Spring, though, a gust catches Hannah as she is broadside to it and flips her, the first and only unexpected swim of the trip. Luckily, after years of trips, the crew is dialed, with some going to grab Hannah, and others immediately fetching gear before the wind and canyon claim it. The wind continues and so do we, we want to make miles so we can wait out the worst of the gusts while hiking, or that's the plan at least. As we round the bend above steer ridge, we discuss waiting for a break in the gusts as this should be a class 3 and this more complex than most of what we have run so far. The wind seems to die down and I commit to going first. Just as I hit the first of the drop, one of the strongest gusts we have seen hits, blowing me back up the rapid. What would have been a relatively straightforward class 2 at this flow becomes more of a hazard because we are being tossed around at the whim of the wind. The group is noticably shaken so we circle up at steer ridge camp and discuss. The group quickly comes to a consensus to continue and try to make our hike, Hannah, however, still shows signs of concern, and as the newest member of the group it seems she doesn't want to speak up. We start over and discuss again, this time with Hannah leading off about her concerns, amplified by her swim. The group is decided again, this time we wait it out, wait for the wind to die. When paddling especially, I am a big believer of respecting every veto and not going forward unless everyone is in agreement as accidents can quickly turn deadly with whitewater involved.

We are marooned on a beach, continuously getting sand blasted by the highway speed gusts. Some try to sleep. Lindsay sets up a hammock and appears to be going for quite a ride. A few windblown hours later I had had enough of our marooned beach and was getting restless. It seems the others were not excited about the prospect of overnighting at the beach either. A few whistle blasts gets the crew to circle up as some had wandered off. In short order it is decided, we brave the wind and continue; the worst of the gusts have subsided. 

The girls during the nightly bath ritual

Little more than an hour later we make it to camp at Snap Canyon, bypassing the ope of hiking up rock creek, that will have to wait for the next time we go through deso-grey. At Snap, everyone gets in the water to "bathe" and clean off some sand that has found its way everywhere.

Sunset at Snap Canyon Camp

Day 4: 

A long day. The Goal? Range creek which should have clean water for us to pump. We also have 3 of the 4 big rapids today to run through. 

Cotton Candy Sunrise at Snap Canyon as mixed thunderstorms move through

A little more than an hour into our float we run down a side channel with the hope of finding a mid-channel spring to draw water from. Not knowing anything about this spring other than that there is an island and this spring should be at the downstream end. We fan out scouring the island, then notice a black looking pit on far river left next to the island. Thats it! In the middle of the desert, in the bottom of the river channel is a spring of perfectly clear and cold water, a little oasis of clean water in the midst of this murky river. 

Taking advantage of an oasis in the water, a spring in the water channel coming out clear and cold.

Joe Hutch Creek Rapid is much ado about nothing, we stop and scout nonetheless. Joe Hutch Canyon is our first proper Class 3, Andrew and i run boats through while others go around. On the beach downstream we see our first "outsider", Kevin, a retired ranger who is going solo down the canyon in his canoe. We are just to late to help him portage, but chat a bit before we head back up to run the remainder of the boats. Shortly after Joe Hutch we officially leave Desolation Canyon behind, a bit bittersweet as i thoroughly enjoyed seeing this stretch of the earth for the first time.

Leaving Desolation canyon and the Roan Cliffs behind

Wire Fence Looks nasty but turns out to be some fun waves on bedrock. We run boats through and head down to three fords. I opt to river scout the first drop, the rest of the crew pulls over early and walks the whole rapid. After the first drop there is a hard left, and just beyond things get difficult. At this point the boys are feeling good and we run through Three Fords, some huge fun waves and probably my favorite of the trip. Instead of running boats through we go back and help portage the remaining boats. 

What we assume are fire hardened ground wasp/bee nests exposed by the fire at Range Creek

We get to range creek close to sunset. As we round the bend, i remember that this area was ravaged by a fire last year and the beautiful beaches and cottonwood groves i had been looking forward to were a thing of the past. Instead, we see countless scarred bones of old cottonwoods. We look for range creek, eventually finding it in a shallow box ravine, not nearly as clear as i had hoped. We dam up a small section with the hopes of pumping in the morning.

Walking through a forrest of bones. This grove will likely never recover.

Day 5: 

The sky is angry. Dawn never really comes, the world slowly gets brighter but everything is still varying shades of dark grey. A light rain begins to fall. Around 8:30 during a break in the rain i make the run over to the "circus tent", our communal tent that Andrew was using during rainy periods on this trip. A short while later things really open up, pea to grape sized hail falls amidst rain that is causing flooding. The teepee style tent has no floor and water beginds to intrude so we dig channels to divert around the center to keep us dry. In watching the river is ee that things are beginning to come up fast. Andrew and i make a mad dash to pull all boats and gear further up the beach to ensure we dont loose anything to the flood. In the end, the river came up about 2 feet and tripled in voloume. 

Range Creek, a now boatable torrent. 

After breakfast things start to calm a bit. We take a group excursion to Range creek which i can tell has flashed because the river is a well divided red in the main channel and grey close to our beach. Range creek, which was a few feet wide and an inch or so deep last night is now a torrent that has filled its low box ravine, 10-15 feet wide and probably 5 feet deep. It looks like a great, if short, paddle but no one can be convinced to sieze this moment. 

By the time we put in, the river has gone back down a foot but is still noticably higher, and now has large mats of debis filling every eddy. 

At Coal Creek, the last "Large" rapid of the trip, we get out and scout alongside Kevin, who we have met up with again. We pass the remains of an effort to dam this river; I am glad we didnt, although there is a need for some water storage, it si becoming increasingly apparent that our water system in the west is broken and we have lost more than enough beautiful spots to the whims of "progress" during the golden age of dam building in the west 70 years ago. 
Coal creek looks big, but not outrageous. The problem, a ginat pit of a hole at the bottom, something that would suck you in if you so much as looked at it. The waves are powerful, rejuvinated by the morning's flood. The boys opt to shuttle boats through, but we decide to first run everything over to the opposite side of the river as this will set us up better to avoid that pit of dispair. 
On the way over, Davis isnt feeling it anymore and drops out, respect every veto. Andrew and i discuss, we both still feel good and we will have a few people watching for safety. There are a few must make moves but otherwise things dont look crazy. We commit to the rust colored water and what looked menacing turns out to be more relaxed, less pushy, but still with sizable waves. We return and run the remaining 4 boats through once the line is found. 

Just as we near camp at School Section canyon, the sky clears up and the world seems bright and happy, as if to give us one last night of beautiful stars before we have to return to every day life, work, and the stresses of society. We spend our last night admiring the millions of stars, watching the Milky Way slowly rotate overhead.

Day 6: 

Although we are in somehwat of a hurry, several people need to be back in society for jobs the following day, we have enough time to explore up School Section canyon. A few hundred yards out from camp i spot bear tracks in the wet sand, we must have had a friend come through the night before. We become childeren, allowing some short exploration, wondering what will be beyond the next bend in the canyon for a short while. 

Some bear tracks just out of camp in the wet wash sand

Much too quickly, we have made it to the boat ramp and back into Green River for some late lunch at the Taco Truck. Here we part ways, Hannah back south to New Mexico, Davis and Lindsay back to Salt Lake for work, Andrew, Jennifer and I back to the put in to grab our vehicles before we go on as well. Driving through 9 Mile canyon, we allow a diverson to see a few of the rock art panels that 9 mile canyon is famous for, as we are here in the daylight this time and know the road ahead is not at all similar to its reputation. 
One Final challenge. A few miles out from a paved road, on the windspept and now cold north slope of the Tavaputs, set amongst the many oil derricks, Andrew suddenly pulls over. He has lost his clutch. We have cell service, luckily, as we have been out of service for most of this 60 mile journey on dirt roads. Like the engineers we are, we dive in, looking at hydraulic systems, vacuum pumps, everything seems to be in order. Andrew decides to "do the stupid thing" and just look at the pedal... Sure enough the pedal linkage had rattled its way out and was now disconnected. A quick remedy and we carry on, making it back to Salt Lake around 10:30, Andrew stopping just outside Montecello around the same time to rest before his final leg back to Pheonix.

Owl Panel in 9 Mile Canyon

Another successful trip, one that rejuvinates the soul. So much has been said of Deso-Grey, much of it seemingly diminishing, as this permit is "easier" to get and the rapids are not as legendary as other stretches nearby, but i found the trip wholly enjoyable and hope someday to return and see some of what we missed. This is the kind of place that you could spend a lifetime in and still not see everything. 

Teton Crest

Several years ago i gave the Grand Traverse a handful of goes and failed each time. It is an ambitious objective to be sure, technical climbing to 5.7, miles of 5th class scrambling spent above 11k ft in high consequence terrain. I managed to always get up and over the Grand Teton, but never managed to make it to South Teton. I have been back to the Grand Teton a handful of times since, climbing the peak and enclosure peak depending on partners and weather (last year i went up with some friends in september and we encountered near 0 F temps and several feet of snow... despite several parties reporting that they made it to the upper saddle i can confirm, i was the first on that day to make it because i set the post hole bootpack). Some day i hope to at least complete the remainder of the traverse from South Teton through Nez Perce, however when i started trail running more seriously another traverse entered my radar. After years of hemming and hawing about it and not feeling fit enough, ben finally convinced me to commit to running the Teton Crest trail, some 40 miles from Teton Pass to the south through much of the park past the Grand and out Paintbrush canyon in the north, covering about 10k feet of climbing en-route. 

Even so, i didnt feel properly trained going in. Previous failures on the grand traverse showed me that fitness prep was everything for bit days in the tetons, but ben had already booked the campground spot so we were "committed" and at 5 am, after one of the shittiest nights of sleep i have had in a long while (due to car alarms constantly going off all night at the campsite) we woke up to go for a run. 

A forrest of fireweed on the way up to the top of Phillips canyon

We parked at an unexpected empty Phillips bench trailhead and got started as dawn broke at 6:30. Right out the gate we came upon another party also going for the crest, which I knew was popular but was not expecting to see the number of people we did on it (easily hundreds, with maybe 20 running it that day). 

Some smooth singletrack in the Jeddediah Smith wilderness

The initial climb out of Phillips canyon is a bit out of character for the rest of the run, as it goes gradually upwards through deep vegetation in lush meadows of wildflowers. Cresting over our first pass was an unexpectedly long slog though thick brush, you think you're there then you turn a corner and realize it still goes up, but once on top and less than two hours in we started to cruise. The miles through the upper Jedediah Smith wilderness cruised by quickly, mostly running through broad open meadows on excellent single track without too many people out on the trail quite yet. Shortly after entering the park around the death canyon shelf people seemed to come out of no where, and what was an empty trail quickly was full of people, surprising for how far one has to walk to get there.

Some friends on the Death Canyon shelf looking down death canyon

The death canyon shelf is what dream runs are made of, long and gradual amazing single track with amazing views, but before too long we were dropping into the upper Alaska basin and starting to climb again. As to be expected for this long of a run, there was bound to be some difficulties and our first came when Ben kicked a rock on accident, nothing seemed broken but it looked painful and slowed us a bit. Coming out of the Alaska basin was a beautiful Saphire blue lake and large fields of wildflowers, but the climb to the schoolhouse divide was a grind. At this point we were just over halfway in but the fatigue was definitely setting in. Luckily, after cresting the schoolhouse divide we were greeted with amazing views of the central Tetons, upper Cascade canyon, and an ever shrinking schoolhouse glacier. Ben definitely picked it up, like a light switch and went from a slow plod to a full hearted run down the north side of the divide. A few miles past the divide we finally committed to the first full break of the day for lunch and to refill water, and most importantly, ice down the feet and legs to recover a bit, we still had 18 miles and 3.5k gain, 6 of loss ahead of us.

Schoolroom Glacier and upper cascade canyon

The long trek out of cascade canyon up to the Paintbrush Divide

The decent of Cascade was definitely a metaphorical high point, however I the fatigue was chasing me at this point, I could feel the aches and sore was building. At the cascade trail branch we had a decision to make, do we cut the run short or are we feeling good enough for another 3k climb up and over the paintbrush divide? After a quick team check we continued on, aiming to run intervals up the divide. Of course that ended real quick and we admitted a running defeat, I was just going to walk it at least. At this point we were entering the most sun exposed portion of the trail, at mid afternoon, and it was as warm as it was going to get. Ben was pushing for a short break at lake solitude, an halfway in to the climb, but I knew that I needed to keep momentum and continue on, lest the fatigue set in and the legs start to freeze up. I left him laying in the grass by the lake and started the long gradual and hot climb up to the top of the paintbrush divide. The climb starts as gradual, but it is consistent and longer than it seemed. After switching back it seemed we just needed to switch back again, and the saddle I originally thought was the top turned out to be a few hundred feet shy of the actual deicide, but just before 4 pm I created the divide with Ben just a few minutes behind and we began the long final descent down to the valley. At this point I was running quite low on water and Ben was itching for a break and swim, we settled on a 10 minute break at lake Holly to recharge. Of course I was the cattle driver with the whip in this case, and when 10 minutes came I nearly had to drag Ben out of the lake, but on we went. The decent was long and steep but gradually flattened, the poles were a lifesaver for my knees to keep me moving. We had originally planned to try for an extended version, pushing on to Jenny lake, but two miles of flats were suddenly quite unappealing and, after notifying Lindsay, we committed to the standard string lake trailhead finish. Just before 6:30, nearly 12 hours after starting and after 11 hours of movement I crossed the final bridge into the parking lot and it was done!

Finally made it to the Paintbrush Divide!

Dropping down towards Paintbrush canyon

The only snowfield remaining on the route, a short 30 ft crossing

After looking around for Lindsay for a while (eventually she found me...) we all went for a quick dip to clean off and freshen up before finishing the day off with tacos! In the end we were a bit slower than desired, but all in all it was another excellent day out in the Tetons!

The final bridge to the String Lakes trailhead

Packrafting the forks of the Blacks Fork River + Provo Woodland

Every spring the show rushes out of the mountains and river people everywhere rush to try and hop in while flows allow, and i am no different. I try and hit a handful of runs coming out of the Uintas every year, in part for the exploration because there is almost no info on many of the rivers and creeks flowing out of the Uintas. 

Provo Woodland

Lindsay and I have aborted on this section a few times prior to this year, kept away by the multitude of no trespassing signs and private land nightmares (victory ranch, at the bottom of this stretch, is notorious for it's lawsuits to keep people off "their river" unless you pay for access).

This year I did a bit more research and found two public access points we could use as well as a bit of info about dams on the stretch. We put in at a small turn off right next to the river, seemingly a popular riverside spot just below the upper bench creek road bridge. When we ran this section, the river was at about 850CFS on the woodland gauge and seemed to hit a low point sometime after noon in the diurnal cycle. In general, i thought it was a great run, fast and bumpy/splashy class 2 all the way to just upstream from Jordanelle at a public access point on the lower end of Victory Ranch. Many reports mention that the lower half f the run has an extremely braided river, but our experience was that things were plenty boatable the entire way and the whole run was a great time. There are a handful of major Diversion dams to navigate though. 

Some info on the drops: The first one came within ~2 miles of our put in, it is a river wide drop but was easily run hard left, there was wood in the center of the dam and right looked very bushy. The Second dam was best run down the center or taking the left up high (the left channel has very little of the flow compared to the right). The diversion is around a left blind corner and is hard to scout, be aware of the diversion gate on the right at the apex of the bend. These two structures are in the upper portion of the run somewhat close together. The final two dams are somewhat close together towards the end of the run. The third dam is easily noted by a structure to control the diversion river left at the drop. This one is best run just right of center, a big CL3 hole with a few waves. Easily portaged on the right. The final dam in at a rightward bend after a long straight, there is a massive house on the hill above it. This was the most complicated drop of the run, 3+ at this flow and best run far right. Left had a lot of exposed wood and rocks. This one was a steeper drop into a series of holes. It took ~3 hours with a few longer breaks, average speed of the water was around 8 mph.

After a fast and somewhat stressful day on the Woodland section of the Provo with Lindsay, instead of trying the east fork of the Bear which has been on my mind for a few years, but is supposedly very wood choked and CL3+, we set out for the Blacks Fork River, another zone i have been thinking about for quite a while now. We set up camp on te shores of Meeks Cabin Reservoir, where we would take out for at least one of the forks which we would take all the way into the reservoir. 

East Fork of Blacks Fork River

 

Looking Downstream at the bridge put in on the East Fork 

the morning of, lindsay and i decided to try the east fork first on a whim, so we went east at the branch in the road and took it to the end and the east fork of the blacks fork river campground. I suspect one could likely take this another ~ mile or so upstream by hiking, but likely not much further as it was a fairly small river at this point already and splits into two major branches at that point. From the day use/trailhead parking area, its a quick walk to the east fork trail bridge where we put in. I would estimate we had about 300CFS to float on.

The east fork starts fast and splashy, busy but only moving about 6 mph. At 300cfs many of the rocks are barely under the surface and, although things are definitely boatable, there was a lot of rock dodging and the occasional bump and grind which continued for about the first 1.5 miles. In 2025, at about 1.5 miles from the east fork trail bridge, there was a barely visible barbed wire fence across the entire river that required portage, then between 1.8 and 2.8 miles from the bridge there were 3 significant log jams that required portage and significantly slowed progress. From that point, though, things are clear for the rest of the river. Shortly after the last log jam  you pass into an open meadow and things slow for a few miles. As you approach the confluence with the west fork, the river picks back up to a fast and fun CL2. We didn't have any problems with braiding near the confluence but the guidebook mentions this as a possibility. The best take out, if you're not wanting to run the main stem, is the Hewinta Guard Station bridge. Just after passing underneath the bridge there is a great take out/beach on the right. We left camp set up next to the reservoir, though, so Lindsay and i continued down instead. Downstream of the Hewinta is much the same as upstream, however when a large house comes into view on the left, be on the lookout for a river wide wire (bridge remains?). For us it was passable on the right but definitely wouldn't want to be caught off guard with that lovely feature. Downstream, the class 2 water continued right until we hit the reservoir our half mile paddle back to camp. If you want to hit the section below Hewinta, some reservoir miles are required as there are no other take out options higher. For us it was perfect because it put us back at camp so Lindsay could rest while I biked back to the car.

West Fork of the Blacks Fork River

This one definitely goes for many miles upstream of where we put in but that will be left for another trip another year. 

With skies that were beginning to darken and give concern, we drove up the West fork road, which was much rougher than I remember it being every time I went out to dead horse lake. A few miles downstream from the usual trailhead river forge there is an open meadow with a (likely private) bridge. We pulled off here which seemed as good a spot as any to start and shortened the day a bit since this was already the second of the day. 

 

Floating through the meadows in the middle of the West Fork Blacks Fork run 

The upper bit of this stretch goes in and out of beautiful meandering meadows, prime beaver territory but with a distinctly Uintas feel. From where we put in, we had about 3.25 miles of flat but swift meadow meandering. This changed abruptly at a site that seemed to be an old washed out bridge, where the bridge was sitting on the left bank. Here the character quickly went to the usual Uintas fast and fun CL2 bump and grind. For the most part the channel was clear and we did not need to portage anything, however, just after passing under the east fork road bridge, the channel braids into oblivion. We kept going left thinking that we would need to end up that direction anyway, and found ourselves on an ever smaller creek which quickly became little more than a stream barely a packraft wide. Somehow the channel was always clear, however improbable it seemed, and for the last few hundred feet we were floating through the forest in the most literal sense, going right between trees whose trunks came right out of the water. In a strange turn of fate, i was more worried about wood on the west fork but it turned out to be the clearer of the two. All in all the float only took about 2 hours and we were quickly back at the Hewinta bridge. Unfortunately for me, my bike tire had gone flat and i got to alternate between riding on the rim and walking the bike for the entire return. All in all, these are two great Uintas runs that probably deserve a bit more traffic. I need to come back now and float the upper stretch of the west fork, as well as main stem below the reservoir!