Canoe Tripping on the Green River in Utah
12-minute read
If you search for the best canoeing destinations in North America, Utah’s section of the Green River will be near the top of the list.
Canoe tripping Utah’s section of the Green River
The Green’s headwaters are up in the mountains of Wyoming. It flows south for 730 miles before it meets the Colorado River, and serves as the Colorado’s main tributary. While the upper section has plenty of whitewater and is popular with rafters, the lower section, while swift, is mostly rapids-free and doable for paddlers of all skill levels.
Bending Branches’ former owner, Ed Vater, was part of a group of men who canoed roughly 100 miles of the Green River between Ruby Ranch and Spanish Bottom (on the Colorado) over six days. He recalls it at one of his favorite canoe trips and was happy to tell us about his experience there.
The Green River: A Different Kind of Wilderness Canoe Trip
Many canoe trippers think of the Boundary Waters, New England, Canada’s vast provincial parks or even the wilds of Scotland’s remote lochs as go-to wilderness tripping destinations.
As Ed told us, though, “People don’t realize how many amazing places there are to paddle and how many destinations are equally as cool yet totally different. There’s a whole bunch of people that have an annual trip to the BWCA or maybe New England going to the Adirondacks. There’s something really nice about doing the same trip every year because you get very familiar with it.
“But you’re missing out on some incredibly different places with different scenery. The Green River is a remote location with easy paddling. Once you’re there you know why it’s a famous destination—there’s amazing scenery everywhere!
“The river is swift, but the section south of Interstate 70 is flat enough for a novice. You get lots of free mileage when you’re out in the flow, and there’s no portaging. Most of the camp spots are tremendous. They’re flat, often shaded and have great side hikes.”
Ed is a huge fan of river trips. “If you want to have more creature comforts and don’t want to portage, a river trip allows you to do that. That can be particularly helpful for people who are older or when the portaging is a deterrent to someone in your family who doesn’t want to go because they don’t want to portage. With most river trips you can just load up and go.”
Dramatic cliffs all along this 100-mile route
Because they’re not limited by weight, his group brings camp chairs, a small foldable table for their camp kitchen and other amenities to make their trip as comfortable as possible. They even enjoy bringing a guitar along for some camp singing.
What Makes the Green River Unique?
By the time it reaches Utah, the Green River can be between 300 and 1,500 feet across and up to 50 feet deep. It meanders through the gorgeous canyon landscape of southeastern Utah, including Canyonlands National Park.
“At the put-in, the cliffs along the river are about 15 feet tall,” said Ed. “The canyon deepens all the way to the takeout, to about 2,500 feet at the confluence of the Colorado. Labyrinth Canyon is not done justice by online photos—it is absolutely magical!”
This arid, desert landscape is completely different from the green, forested areas of what many canoeists think of as “typical” wilderness destinations. Geological features are on full display along the canyon walls, and there’s a lot of history as well.
Ed and his group were able to do a lot of hiking during their 6-day trip
Naturalist John Wesley Powell led a team down the Green River as part of the Powell Geographic Expedition of 1869 to explore and map this part of the Colorado Plateau. Ed and his group read sections of Powell’s book each day of their trip.
The Route from Ruby Ranch to Spanish Bottom
Ed’s crew drove from Wisconsin to Moab, Utah with their canoes and gear. Once there, they hired Tex’s Riverways to shuttle them to Ruby Ranch and pick them up six days later at Spanish Bottom.
Tex’s has been providing shuttles on the Green and Colorado since 1958 and provides a wealth of information about canoeing this route. Their FAQ page addresses such topics as what skills each party needs to take on this trip, how desert camping is unique, how toileting works and much more.
Their downloadable PDF map provides a very general look at the route, but you’ll want to buy a waterproof detailed map once you’re there to take with you:
The Green River is on the left, the Colorado on the right (map courtesy of Tex’s Riverways)
If six days and 100ish miles is too long, you can opt to take out at Mineral Bottom on the south end of Labyrinth Canyon. That’s about half the distance. “That’d be a great trip,” Ed said, “but I think you’d really be missing out if you didn’t do the whole thing.”
Who Can Handle This Route?
As far as the paddling itself, Ed found the Green very easy. “I think on our whole trip, we only fought the wind once for a couple of hours (obviously, I’m not going to guarantee anything from that!),” he said. Because the route meanders through canyons, canoeists may face a headwind at times or be treated with a tailwind.
“It’s truly a flatwater trip. It’s a big powerful river with nice flow that gives you free mileage. There was only one rapids on the entire thing, and it’s not a technical rapids. You could carry around it or just run it. It’s a big enough flow that there’s a wave train, but I don’t think there’s anything to run into. We scouted it and then ran it with loaded canoes and stayed dry.
“Those free miles without the portaging means your days are much easier than the same mileage in the Boundary Waters. And if the conditions are easy, people aren’t as tired and not as likely to be cranky!”
So this section of the Green River can accommodate novice paddlers and families easily. However, that doesn’t mean anyone should think anyone can do it unprepared for its remoteness and desert climate.
Tex’s provides an entire list of skills your party needs to have in order to take on this multi-day route safely. This includes knowing what to do in case of a capsize, basic camping and trip planning skills, knowing how to read the map, how to load the canoes safely, the ability to swim, First Aid skills, self-rescue skills and more.
Anytime you’re in a remote wilderness area with no cell phone service for days at a time, you need to treat the experience with respect.
One of the many gorgeous camping spots along the Green River
Camping Along the Green River
There are many designated campsites along the river, most of them on sandbars created by side rivers depositing silt as they enter the Green. These campsites have none of the “amenities” of the Boundary Waters like a fire circle or vault toilet.
Portable toilets are required for paddlers. Building fires is strictly restricted to fire pans and no campfire residue can be left at the site. So plan on camp stoves for cooking and heating water.
Arriving and setting up camp often involves hauling your gear up a short, steep bank. But once on top, these areas are very flat and often shaded by some of the hardy trees that grow along the river.
Ed and his group found the campsites to be amazing. “We found the top of the flood plain to be about 10 feet above the water at this flow. The surface is flat, sandy soil where tent stakes push in with ease and sleeping is very comfortable,” he said. “I didn’t see any shortage of camps and one of the positives of the trip for me is most of the camps are just tremendous.”
Stunning scenery on all sides
Towering cliffs everywhere and many accessible hiking trails to more scenic views make these some of the most beautiful campsites anywhere. Swimming is definitely possible later in the summer when the water warms up (it was about 50º F during their spring trip).
“The badlands here could be best described as a combination of North Dakota’s Theodore Roosevelt National Park with Utah and Arizona’s Monument Valley,” Ed said.
What Time of Year to Canoe the Green River
As with any river, flow depends on many factors including the time of year, mountain snowfall levels and recent rains.
“We put in on April 17th with the goal of taking advantage of the best weather and putting in before the big snowmelt might put the river up onto the flood plain, which would make it harder to find good camp spots,” said Ed. “We put in at a flow of 2,500 cubic feet per minute (CFS) which was considered low, but the current was still swift.
As we already mentioned, the river temp was about 50 degrees during their trip, although not too cold for these northerners to clean up in the water after a long day. These spring days could get hot, but once the sun set behind the canyon walls, it cooled instantly in the dry desert air. Later in the summer, it can get scorchingly hot but the water will be much warmer. Fall can work as well for a canoe trip.
Early spring meant warm days and cool nights in the canyons
One slight hitch Ed’s group had in their plans was during their road trip from Wisconsin: a snowstorm closed Interstate 70 at a mountain pass in Colorado. They were forced to turn around and spend an extra night in Golden before continuing their trip. Heavy snow is always a possibility in the mountains in the spring and fall.
What About Water?
The Green River is heavily laden with silt, which will clog a water filter in no time. This is especially true at high flow when the river looks like chocolate milk. So you need to have a plan for your drinking and cooking water.
For their trips, Ed and his crew prefer to bring several 2.5-gallon plastic jugs filled with water and load their canoes with them. He said, “The benefit of not portaging is the weight doesn’t hurt you. And if it’s windy, it helps your hull sit deeper in the water. The current’s taking the hull downstream and the wind doesn’t have as much to catch on. Then we don’t have to filter. We’re hauling more weight, at least initially in the trip, but it works well for us.”
Stopping for lunch
Another option some folks choose is to bring along a couple of 5-gallon buckets. They’ll scoop up a bucket full of the river water and let it sit for a few hours until the silt settles to the bottom (adding a little alum to the water helps speed up the process). Then they can pump out the silt-less water on the top and run it through a filter or boil it for any remaining bacteria not wanted in their digestive system.
How Busy is Boat Traffic On This Stretch of the Green?
During their six days in mid-April, Ed and his party saw people every day but also had many stretches alone on the river. They were able to find campsites quite easily without having to share a site with another party.
As with any wilderness canoe area, the campsites closest to the put-ins and take-outs are the busiest.
They saw large family groups that included an array of watercraft. They saw a couple of sea kayakers. They saw a group that had rented a large raft and several paddle boards so they could take turns paddling and taking the gear. Tex’s even rents a couple of canoes with an attachment to form a makeshift catamaran for an extra stable craft that’s ideal for families with small kids or an odd number of people.
As with most other natural areas, summers are likely busier when kids are off school and families are vacationing more.
Safety Concerns on a Green River Trip
While the paddling itself is easy for canoeists of varying skill levels, this area is extremely remote. There are no bridges over the river in this stretch and only three boat launches in the 100 miles. There’s no cell phone signal inside the canyon.
So you’ll need to use the same caution as you would on any other wilderness canoe trip. You could consider bringing a satellite phone along. And certainly, you’ll want a well-stocked First Aid kit that you know how to use.
Anyone with wilderness tripping experience can easily transfer their knowledge to this part of the continent with some self-education about the desert environment.
If you’d rather do this trip with an experienced guide, you have several options:
- Moab Canoe—Their website mentions guided Green River trips but doesn’t offer many details. Contact them for more.
- Breakwater Expeditions is an Idaho-based company that offers paddling on the Green River in Utah.
- Mahoosuc Guide Service—A Maine-based company that offers a guided trip.
- Centennial Canoe Outfitters—Based in Colorado, these folks offer a 70-mile trip on the Green for all ages 6 and up, perfect for families.
- The River’s Path offers themed week-long trips on the Green River. Past theme examples are desert blooms, writing workshops and poetry weeks.
Last Words from Ed Vater
Ed told us he feels very fortunate that his grandparents encouraged him to travel when he was still young enough to enjoy it. He said, “I remember them telling me in their later years that the only regret they had was they didn’t travel more when they were younger—in their 50s and 60s. Because when you get older, you’ll want to and you can’t.
The group of five at another of their scenic campsites on the Green
“So they were a push for me to start doing these trips about 11 years ago. I always felt like I was too busy working with the company and everything else and just never did it. They pressed me to, so my brother and I started doing these canoe trips.
“If you Google the top paddling destinations of North America, that’s the list we’re working off of.”
Ed Vater (back) canoeing the Green River with his brother, Jack (front)
Maybe you need that encouragement, too! Will Utah’s Green River be on your list of canoe trips?
(All photos courtesy of Jack Vater)
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