Has anyone floated the East Fork of the Virgin River (UT) from Mt. Carmel to park boundary?
Hi Scott,
I hiked Parunuweap/East fork Virgin last September towards the end of monsoon season. I was seriously considering taking my Llama raft along for that hike. Overall I’m glad I didn’t bring it for that low level of water.
The first few miles from Mt Carmel are through private or leased cow pasture and I didn’t see much of the stream because I was walking along the road (next time I’ll drive the road down to where the canyon starts). The next few miles within the canyon were wading in water that was too shallow to float for more than a few tens of yards. The last few miles probably could have been floated, although there would have been places with dragging, and it would be slower than walking and wading. If it had all been that way I would really have enjoyed doing a lazy float though. I’m considering going there again this fall with the packraft as a mostly floating travois in the middle section and driving the upper cow pasture section.
There is extensive cow grazing along most of the stream, including in the canyon in the winter-early spring. There was a clear poop-free area around the water where I think the monsoon flows washed things out. I’d hate to go before that happens, because above that line it was pretty nasty.
If you’re going during spring snowmelt flow it might floatable the whole way, though I wasn’t thinking about that side of it when I was there so I don’t know about how safe/scoutable it is in the many narrow bedrock sections and the boulder scramble drop towards the end