Green and Colorado Rivers I paddle Colorado River near Moab quite often in winter, so I don’t think that the weather in Utah can be really bad, exvept some storm events:
Lake Powell and off-water advice I paddled on Powell a few years ago with a group in mid-May. Strong winds kept us grounded one day and cut our trip short. Having said that, however, it was an awesome trip and I want to go back again some day.
There is a book called “Canoeing and Kayaking Utah” by Michael R. Fine (I think I got it in the paddling.net store.) that may give you more paddling ideas. It’s broken down by region, tells you the best time of year to paddle, etc.
Most of my experience in that area has been hiking and climbing.
Arches National Park and Canyonlands are incredible. Seeing Delicate Arch at sunset is a must-do. But one of my favorite hikes isn’t in either national park. It’s Corona Arch on BLM land. The road you take to get to it follows the Colorado River out of Moab. Many petroglyphs along the road, roadside information signs, even dinosaur tracks. Goblin Valley State Park will make you feel like you’ve landed on another planet … and the rocks are the people. Near Goblin Valley is a great canyoneering hike, also on BLM land, Little Wildhorse Canyon and Bell Canyon can be done as a loop hike. Nothing super technical, just a little scrambling and you might have to wade through some water.
Posted 3 of my trip reports with lots of photos for the Green/Colorado river in the Moab area on my website. Also have a Lake Powell writeup with quite a few pics.
Unless mistaken, the PETT is now legal on the above discussed sections of rivers. Not sure of Lake Powell.
Also forgot to mention that although the paddling is good on the recommended areas that I’m familiar with, it’s the day-hikes and hanging around camp that makes them special. It’s hard to do that on blitz type paddles (as an example, four days to do Mineral Bottom to Spanish Bottom).
April weather I’ve done both the Green (in early April) and the San Juan (mid April) and, as an alumni of the University of Minnesota, I am sure no true Minnesotan would have the slightest problem with April weather in southern Utah.
The San Juan, though, has several Class II and one Class III rapids that might be a little difficult for some kayakers. That’s why I thought of the Green or Colorado.
I’ve seen sea kayaks on the San Juan several times and they indeed were struggling somewhat with the rapids even though I would rate the rapids as minor. Have hung around 8-Foot and Ledge rapids and watched a couple parties run them. What seem to happen both times is some members of the parties walked the rapids and let the more experienced paddlers run all the kayaks through.
Agree the weather should not deter anyone from an April trip although the spring winds sometimes…can simply be horrible.
More of an overview I agree about the lack of detail on Lake Powell. It’s pretty sparse on Green River, too. I see the book as more of an overview that gives you ideas of places to go.
well the water levels of powell are at there lowest since they built the dam damn. The levels are down 50+ feet which means your maps are useless and that in many areas it the original river now and not a reservoir. The plus side…NO MOtor boats, or very few!!! A good place to go now, good hiking to many anasazi indian ruins which are now exposed.
Well any of the marina have a parking area…but the water is now 100-300 yards from the docks so you will have to walk a way to get to the water. Most marinas are closed too so no one will be around. Hard to say if its “safe”. Define safe? Probably be better off than downtown denver or salt lake citY. I would start another message and be MORE clear in the subject box to get attention… write “Lake Powell INfo wanted” . I know there are a many people here who have paddled it during these low water levels.
I used the WAG bags both on the Missouri and the Green and they were OK as far as the BLM and Park were concerned. On the Missouri they checked what you had at the put-in so they knew what I was bringing. I think they don’t want you to just use plastic bags without the chemicals in them to treat the waste and then dumping the untreated waste in the dumpster. It’s interesting though, since that’s exactly what is done with disposable diapers. How come that’s OK?
I found Lake Powell OK as far as power boats in April but the volume of motor traffic really increased when I returned in May. Avoiding the weekend would also help. However, the generator noise from the houseboats really ruined the camping experience for me. A generator can really make a loud noise echoing in the canyons. It’s something you don’t have to deal with on the Green. Lake Powell would be a lot friendlier paddle if they had no-wake zones in the canyons. To each his own though – some people like mountain biking while others are roadies. I like mountain bikes.
Yes, wind can be a problem on both the Green and Lake Powell. I had wind days on both.
You just have to wing it when looking for campsites, and be more careful about navigation. They have mileage buoys on Powell, and the larger landscape features don't go away just because of low water levels.
We paddled there when it was 75' below HWM, and then again 2 yrs later when it was even lower. You have to kind of wing it when looking for campsites anyway. We had NO trouble finding appropriate sites for 5 people with 3 tents. It's not a big deal...could even look at it as more exploratory than a canned trip.
Hite Marina was/is closed. Bullfrog was and is open. Also, you don't need the marinas and docks anyway! You can launch from other places that motorboats can't.
From what I've heard, riverfront put-ins are the worst for vehicle break-ins. Always be careful ANYWHERE.
Diapers in dumpsters I’ve wondered about that, too. And dog poop in bags. We pick up/bag our dogs’ poop and routinely include them in our trash for pickup.
Is this just a matter of “let’s not think about it” because there’s no easy alternative? I mean, if they had poop-specific disposal containers I’d separate the dog bags for those, but I know damn well that many dogowners and diaper-changers will just throw poop in with the regular trash.
Oh, and it’s horrible how some boating dogowners just let their dogs crap all over campsites. They gotta haul out their own poop, so why not pick up after the dogs, too?
Some of the campsites at Flaming Gorge were AWFUL for poop. They allow catholes, which is OK, yet there were many unburied piles of human and dog poop, plus used toilet paper thrown on the ground. Never had that problem at Lake Powell, despite its tremendous crowds.
Red Fleet State Park for day trip I forgot to mention this place, which I visited on my way back from Flaming Gorge.
It’s near Vernal, UT, and it’s BEAUTIFUL as well as quiet. The chamber of commerce guy told me it attracts more of a family crowd than another nearby state park. He was right.
The campground is clean and has some wonderful tent sites up in the juniper-treed hillside.
The lake is not huge but it’s enough for a nice day paddle. The Red Fleet is several red sandstone bulwarks standing by themselves. I also swam across from the campground to the other side (you can swim anywhere, in stark contrast to the policy in CO state parks). That side had some dinosaur tracks in the rock hillside. If I hadn’t swum over, I could have driven around the lake–but why waste gas circling around when it was such a short, pleasant swim to get there directly?
I would recommend this paddle and campground to all paddlers.
Utah and poop Not sure what the deal is with the large amounts of campsite poop, but it runs rampant in northern Utah, the Uinta’s have the same problem. maybe it’s the average size of the Utah family = lot’s of poop.