Green River

This trip has a couple of purposes. Richard wants to work on his quest to paddle the length of the Green River. One of the sections that he lacks is immediately north and south of Green River Utah, from Swayze's Beach to Crystal Geyser. After that, we will do some touring on the way home, including Grand Mesa and Gunnison Colorado.

On Saturday, we drove to Rifle Gap State Park, which neither of us had ever seen. This is north of the town of Rifle Colorado, the home of the infamous congresswoman Lauren Boebert. Our drive there was routine; we stopped for lunch at Butterhorn Bakery and Cafe in Frisco, where Sandi and Tina the waitress compared notes on motherhood. We got off I-70 at New Castle, and drove Bufford road to the State Park. Once we got off the interstate, the driving was slow. We stayed in Cedar campground; it was nice and quiet. The lake was very low; it is only 360 acres when full, so it looked like a pond.

Sunday morning we got up and drove through Rifle, turning west towards Utah. After the usual gas stop at Loves in Grand Junction, we drove to the state park in Green River Utah. We had just missed the melon festival; there were a few floats around from the parade. We bought some melons, and learned how to thump watermelons. The state park campground is a green oasis in the desert, next to a golf course. We went to mass at the tiny Catholic mission church, where we were the only visitors, and one of the few who were not native Spanish speakers. The young priest from India greeted us warmly, and preached enthusiastically in Spanish. (Summary of the homily: Give alms). We ate at the popular food truck parked in the old gas station,Tacos La Pasadita. There was a line to order the entire time that we were there; it has five stars on Yelp, out of 568 reviews. We drove north out of the city to check out the paddle put in and take out.

On Monday we got up early, and drove to Swayzes boat ramp, north of the town of Green River. Richard got on the water at 8:45. The first challenge was the dam; there was a boat chute, and Richard ran it in his canoe, probably class II. At one point he stopped to go to the bathroom and ended up in boot sucking mud, where he fell and got pretty muddy. The float was straightforward otherwise, with farmlands on both sides, and water pumps sucking water out of the river. We had originally planned to get out north of town, but everything was going well; he continued to the state park where we are staying, arriving around 12:30. This was the first real trip in this particular canoe; it worked fine. He worked to rinse some of the mud off the canoe, and Sandi picked up Richard at the boat ramp. Richard worked to resolve an issue with the trailer lights, and was successful, after a few trips to the hardware store. We drove to Crystal Geyser, the take out for Tuesday, and were lucky enough to see the geyser gushing. This is a rare cold water geyser powered by carbon dioxide; the water is heavy in minerals. We had celebratory burgers and beer at Ray's Tavern, a traditional stop after multi-day river trips.

On Tuesday, we drove the a few hundred yards to the boat ramp, and Richard put in. This was a short distance, perhaps 4 miles. He was only on the water about two hours. Sandi drove the truck over the dirt roads, which included BLM 325 – Area 51, to reach Crystal Geyser. We loaded up the boat, went back to the campground, washed the mud off the boat and Richard, and put the canoe back on the truck. We drove next to the town library, where Richard sent off some emails, and we met someone from Nebraska, driving a van with a peace and love license plate. He was a character, who had worked on the Delta Queen riverboat, as well as cruise ships, and described himself as a philosopher/theologian.

After the library we went to the John Wesley Powell museum, where we learned more about Powell and the local history. Sandi was fascinated by the wooden dories used to run rivers before inflatable boats were widely available. The museum also has a River Runners Hall of Fame, with posters giving the history of the key people in river running in the area. It rained while we were in the museum. Sandi cooked up fajitas, and we went for a walk around the campground. We enjoyed talking to two couples from Quebec, who were on a big road trip with their jeeps with tents on the roof. We finished the evening at a campfire lit by Richard using only one piece of newspaper to ignite the kindling. The forecast for the next few days is wet; there are flood watches out for the entire area for the next two day.