Escalante Story

As I write this recap for the trip, it is October 2005. 10 years previously, I stood on the Hwy 12 bridge near Calf Creek in Utah and looked down at a dry river bed, not wanting to believe that this was actually the Escalante River. But I sucked it in a bit and declared to my wife BB that "one day, we will run this river!"

Over the next 10 years, I kept my eye on the snow levels each spring in the area around central Utah. And finally, finally, the spring came when there an outrageous amount of snow fallen on the Aquarius Plateau. In late March, there was already over 200% of snow pack!

This was a year not to be missed, so I called my recently-retired-from-a-real-job bud Rice, and within minutes we decided on an early May departure that would work for both of our busy schedules. When I asked BB if she'd like to run this river, she jumped at the chance, not quite knowing what she was getting herself into.

The Escalante is rarely runnable for its entire 80 - 90 mile length. Stories have been told about having enough water early in the trip, but running out of water during the trip and having to drag their boats much of the way. The river is very narrow, has almost constant twists and turns it. The banks are lined w/ a bright green cottonwood and the dull green Russian olive. For folks that don't know, the Russian olive has very scary 2" spike-like thorns that are ready to rip and you and boat to shreds.

We launched at 150 cfs which doesn't seem like much but for the Escalante, it was plenty. The average gradient is over 20 ft per mile, so the low flow moved quickly over the sandy bottom. The quick flow was nearly relentless for most of the trip, and the narrow stream bead twisted and turned for most of the trip. We were constantly working to avoid strainers, overhanging branches, boulders.

Even though there was virtually no whitewater, . Class III boating skills were required.

Amidst all this, the Escalante Canyon's walls dropped steeply to the river on one bank or the other. The varying shades of red, brown, orange, and yellow covered In desert varnish made for a very surreal experience. 1000 foot cliffs often made for some very strange perspectives.

All of the SOARs took an amazing amount of abuse from hitting all the boulders and running into trees and Russian Olives, and we suffered no punctures or any damage from this very tough river.

Enjoy the photos. Most were taken by my digital camera, plus a few were sent to me by Rice. The on river shots were taken during the very rare straight sections of the river. When it was tight and technical, we had no time for picture taking.

Larry