Big Trip - 2001 - Page 11
Deso/Gray and Labyrinth & Stillwater

There are a few big rapids in Desolation and Gray.  The biggest is Coal Creek Rapid.  We had been going along for a while on the day we reached the rapid.  I think I had been in the inflatable kayak for a while and was pretty tired by the time we got to the rapid.  We pulled over to scout it as we had never run it before at this low a level.  At a higher level it would have been just big waves and a hole to watch out for.  At this level, there were more rocks exposed and hydraulics working.  We decided that I could do it and I did while Angie rowed the raft with Judy aboard.  The reason I want to include this picture is that it is the single best image I have of how much we trust each other's judgment and how much we love the river and each other. 

Gunnison Butte marks the end of the the Desolation Canyon's 84 mile trip.  It's beautiful.  This also puts you a few minutes drive from Green River, Utah.  Judy had a rental car which she had the shuttlers drive to the take out.  We went into Green River for dinner.  

The next day we drove to Grand Junction to get food and to stop in at REI to see if they had something we could use to sleep on the boat with.  My thought was that we might not be able to find a beach on Lake Powell so we might have to sleep on the boat.  REI had an aluminum cot that was too expensive and they had some hammocks.  Nothing seemed right so we forewent it.  

The next morning we floated down the Green from Gunnison Butte to Green River, Utah.  We stopped into the Powell Museum there.  Then floated on down to Green River State Park.  On the way down we had to go over a diversion dam.  Some folks we talked to said it couldn't be done, some said just go right down the center at this water level (that being low).  When we got to the diversion it spanned the entire river having only an angled portion along the right side.  As we got closer I could see that indeed you could run down the center and that's what we did.  At higher water, this would have been risky.  I was so happy to have gotten over the diversion that I didn't pay enough attention and bumped a rock in the water below.  Angie slide off the boat and landed on a rock.  Her tailbone was sore immediately and troubled her off and on through the rest of the trip.  

The next day, we started down into Labyrinth and Stillwater Canyons.  We had never been in these canyons before and were excited to see what they looked like.  They declivity of the river is a foot or so a mile, so the river slowed down and it was getting mid-summer and the sun was beating down.  During this time we would get up early and row until it was too hot when we would look for a shady spot.  Sometimes we would look at the topographic map in the morning trying to discern likely shade spots.

The main highlights for us during much of this section besides shade! were a number of inscriptions left in the rock walls.  Some from a French fur trapper named Denis Julien who in 1836 traveled through Cataract and Labyrinth and Stillwater Canyons in search of beaver.  Other of the inscriptions were left by early river runners including a steamboat the Launch Margerite, USGS surveys, Norm Nevills, Georgie White and Harry Aleson, and most exciting to me the Kolb Brothers.