Green Water Rafting

This last weekend’s adventure really offered a full range of emotions and experiences.   We took our first overnight rafting/float trip down the Green River just below the Flaming Gorge Dam.  The trip involved 7 people, 2 dogs, 2 rafts, 1 duckie and 26.5 miles of the Green River.   The rafting was mostly mellow, with a few Class II sections and one section they claim to be Class III.  Our first day was a pretty short day, so we had a relaxing morning around camp, and put the boats in pretty late.  What made us even later was a 40+ mile drive one way to drop off the shuttle cars on mostly gravel roads.   What made us REALLY late was a flat tire in our new car.  I’m sure you remember my trip report from 2 weeks ago having a flat as well, so as you can imagine, I wasn’t very happy. 

Finally we got on the river around 3:30pm.  Our dog Tux had never done anything like this, so he sat up front in the duckie with me and tried to enjoy getting splashed.  He got used to it, but due to the afternoon clouds, we all got a little cold.  Overall the rafting in the Green is pretty relaxing.  There are a decent number of rapids to keep things exciting, but nothing that a beginner couldn’t handle.

Rafting the Green River. Copyright Nate Young and Crux Photo.

There also are a lot of fish.  You could see the fish everywhere since the water was so clear.  Someone told me there are 22,000 fish per mile in the part of the Green.  One thing I know is true is that fresh trout (seriously 5 minutes from gutting to grilling) is really really good. 

The second day was a long day.  After an early start, and a few fast moving sections, we quickly reached the slower part of the river.  At first this was fun…  We took a few swims, ate a bunch of food, drank a bunch of beer, and even tossed the dog in the water to cool off.  But after an hour or so of slow water, the thought of driving home really late at night conviced us to start pattling.  So the very relaxing float trip finally gave us a workout as we pattled the last 5 miles to the pull out.

So the Green was a great river to float.  Just don’t get a flat tire.  Turned out that we couldn’t really drive home on it, so we put the doughnut on and drove 50mph all the way home.  Sure it took almost 5 hours to get home, but we got great gas milage.  

Check back in a few days to see some beautiful pictures of Flaming Gorge before the raft trip!

Rafting the Green River. Copyright Nate Young and Crux Photo.

Rafting the Green River. Copyright Nate Young and Crux Photo.

~ by cruxphoto on July 29, 2008.