PS…The Escalante Interagency Center is staffed with some great folks but has a long history of pushing very conservative information. If your skill-set and equipment is above average it is best to take their recommendations with a grain of salt.
hey dave,
i’d be around and interested this spring. very flexible on dates. not sure i can hike as fast as you though… i’d be interested in a float/hike/canyon combo, maybe even haul a rope or two around to do some slots. there is a slot down there i’ve been wanting to scout for a long time, possibly descend too.
philip, did you get a packraft? be cool to actually hook up with you two if you are down in utah this spring.
- dan
Dan, I shall be in touch. Would be awesome to do an adventure together at last.
Bump.
I know it’s been a light snow season. Anyone planning an Escalante River trip?
I could be convinced…
I ran the Dirty Devil from Hanksville to Hite earlier this week. I have my eye on several other runs in the state this spring, assuming flows are sufficient.
What was the Dirty Devil Running? How many nights? Also, I’m new to packrafting. I’m wondering how the my llama would do on the green river through labyrinth canyon? How do they track on bigger rivers?
Thanks for any info!
Kara
Kara, the river was running 125-250 cfs. I ran the stretch from the “Landfill Road” (just south of Hanksville) to just beyond the bridge over the Dirty Devil near Hite, which is about 75 river miles, in five days. That’s on the faster side for “normal” flows. I wasn’t hurrying but I was in my boat a lot. I’d say five days is the minimum you’d want to plan for. There are a ton of side canyons to explore and you could easily make it a 10 day trip. There is also the option of running a shorter stretch. One dirt road crosses the river at about the 50 mile mark (Poison Springs Wash Road), so you could run the upper 50 or the lower 25.
Here’s a link to a video I put together that should give you a sense of the Dirty Devil. It’s a slow, shallow, muddy river…
As for the Green, I have no direct experience but I know people paddle all sorts of things down Labyrinth so I don’t see why a packraft wouldn’t work fine…
Although the Escalante flow is low (around 5cfs at the bridge at the moment) and there is no prospect of increased flow from snow runoff, I plan on running the section between Fence or Scorpion to Coyote within the next week or two. I’ve experimented with short runs from the bridge in flows this low and didn’t have a problem, and the flows downstream are larger than at the bridge. Also, I’ve waded the section from 25 mile to Scorpion in mid-summer; I think the packraft would’ve done reasonably well in the river then. That being said, if any one thinks this is a really bad idea (not unlikely because it is one of mine), please tell me I’m nuts, beg me not to go, buy the movie rights etc.
Kara, I’ve taken my Alpacka on the Green through Stillwater (Island in the Sky --> Needles, backpack in and out) in both low flow in Sept. (maybe 2500cfs?) and after peak runoff last summer (maybe around 11k cfs?). I earned my oatmeal during the low flow trip - I felt like a galley slave, and came to fully appreciate the term “Stillwater.” It was a blast at 11k. Don’t know how much different Labyrinth would be.
Seems like earlier is better than later this year. We just got done with an Escalante packraft float from Fence Canyon to Coyote: 2 people, 1 dog, 2 Alpacka Llamas. April 19-23. My partner measured 55 cfs with a current meter near Moody canyon. There was a fair bit of scooching and dragging through places on the lower portion where the channel is sometimes wide and shallow, but it was very fun and easy and gorgeous overall. Seems like there’s much less water than there was last year on the Escalante side of the watershed (vs Boulder Creek). Snotel graphs were useful to see what’s left and what’s coming off, Witsoe site is showing a low year with early melt: http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/cgibin/wygraph-multi.pl?state=UT&wateryear=2012&stationidname=11M03S-WIDTSOE+#3) The Boulder side looks closer to normal (http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/cgibin/wygraph-multi.pl?state=UT&wateryear=2012&stationidname=11L05S-DONKEY+RESERVOIR)
If you choose the scorpion entrance, that looked like a challenging hike.
Tnanks flg_arizona. I floated the Fence to Coyote section Apr. 28-30; looks like the flow (at the bridge) during this time was in the neighborhood of 8. The rafting from Fence to the mandatory portage (about 30 miles?) was not optimal - I just hit the bottom too frequently, as much as I tried to avoid that by leaning back (sort of pulling a wheelie) with the boat. The river was higher from the portage to Coyote. I had a lot of fun on this stretch. (I’ve done the hike to/from the Escalante via Scorpion. There’s some x-country hiking but navigation is easy, as is most of the walking in Scorpion, which is well worth seeing.) Next year, I’ll time my trip so that the flow is at least 15cfs at the bridge.
Thanks for the update bruceh, I was curious about what happened. I’m hoping to go again on a more normal snow year when there’s a little more flow. Also next time I’ll take a better hike up Scorpion; we stopped at Scorpion for lunch but barely walked 5 minutes upstream.
Looks like this guy could have used a partner or a packraft. Even in June it was too hot down there.