For much of my life, desert rivers have been obstacles or sources of silty water, difficult to cross and hard to filter. The small ones, frigid in the spring, could be waded. Big ones were hiked along, often arduously, or approached, camped beside, and left behind to return the way you came. They are also beautiful green corridors through arid landscapes, lined with cottonwoods and punctuated by rock art galleries and ruins. Sitting on a canyon rim in the hot sun, cliffed-out high above an impossibly green river bottom, you ache to be down in the cool shade.
Packrafts transform rivers from barriers into people-movers. This spring while drifting along on the San Juan several days into a week-long float, I realized how relaxed I felt, deep in the canyon and far from cell coverage, watching one sandstone formation dip into the river to reveal the younger one above it as we traveled downstream. It was like a days-long sigh of relief.
Kevin Fedarko in his book, The Emerald Mile, about boating in the Grand Canyon, wrote:
“To float, to drift, savoring the pulse of the river on its odyssey through the canyon, and above all, to postpone the unwelcome and distinctly unpleasant moment when one is forced to reemerge and reenter the world beyond the rim—that is the paramount goal.”
Our Alpacka Explorers, weighing about 7 pounds, plus the paddles, PFDs (life vests), and dry bags, all added to standard backpacking gear, make for heavy packs. We haven’t been ambitious about carrying our rafts very far, instead opting for short approaches. If one is willing to carry the gear, even more terrain opens. Either way, once on the water, you spend your days watching the scenery scroll by. If it’s hot, you swim. If it’s cold, you try not to. Camps are often idyllic with sandy beaches, shade, and side-canyons to explore.
I’ve written before about our first two packraft trips (Oregon’s John Day River and Boquillas Canyon on the Rio Grande) but during the last two spring boating seasons (2022 and 2023), we’ve added the Escalante, San Juan, and San Rafael to our resumes. All of these are exceptional trips in different ways, and there is no shortage of YouTube videos and trip reports, so I won’t add to that pantheon, but I’ll share a few photos and some basic logistics.
Logistics
Escalante
Permits: Required backcountry permit is easily obtained from the Ranger Station in Escalante on your arrival (no lottery, etc.).
Recommended water level: We ran this section when the river was peaking at 6 cfs and it was often lower than that, which was marginal but obviously doable. The recommended water level is at least 50 cfs, but people run it at 2 cfs. The low water made the trip a little more arduous but it was still great.
Shuttle: Our shuttle was from the Egypt Trailhead to the 40-mile Ridge Trailhead. Both are accessed from the Hole in the Rock Road outside of Escalante, which is usually ok for passenger cars (but it can get rough or muddy depending on weather). The spur roads into Egypt and 40-mile Ridge require some clearance and there's sand on the 40-mile Ridge road. We were fine with a Subaru and an AWD van. The shuttle is tedious and takes a couple of hours if I remember correctly.
River info: If there’s enough water, you can put in at the Highway 12 bridge near Escalante, but at lower water Fence Canyon is the recommended put in. We started at Fence and took out at Coyote Gulch where we hiked out via the crack in the wall (strenuous hike up a dune but technically easy). Some people float all the way to Lake Powell and get picked up there. The main challenge for us was the low water. We did a lot of butt-scooting and some dragging of boats. Rapids were easy at low water but hard to get through without hanging up. There are two mandatory portages.
Online info: American Packrafting Association, Bearfoot Theory blog, National Park Service.
San Juan
Permits: Required. You can enter the lottery for trip dates between April 15 and July 15 at recreation.gov. For earlier trips, you don’t have to enter the lottery, but you must apply for a permit starting December 1. That’s what we did, and we got a permit, but it was cold for the first few days in April. Later dates are likely to have more water and warmer temperatures.
Recommended water level: >500 cfs. When we were on the river, it was running about 1,000 cfs which was a nice level.
Shuttle: We paid for the shuttle using Wild Expeditions in Bluff. They drove our van to Clay Hills and left it there for us. Cost was about $250.
River info: The San Juan is usually boated either from Sand Island to Mexican Hat or from Sand Island all the way to Clay Hills. We took out at Clay Hills. The best archaeology is before Mexican Hat, so plan to spend more time on that section if you can. Also, the left bank of the river is on Navajo lands, and if you want to hike there, you need a special permit (recommended). Chinle Wash is particularly interesting. Call the Navajo Parks and Recreation Department in Window Rock at 928-871-6647.
Online Info: BLM, Dan Ransom video, Guidebook.
San Rafael
Permits: None required.
Recommended water level: >100 cfs (we ran it at 150 and it was great). They say over 1,000 is not recommended, but I don’t know why not.
Shuttle: Put in is at Fuller Bottom and take out is just upstream from the bridge at the Swinging Bridge Campground. Shuttle by car takes a half-hour or so. Some people do a bicycle shuttle.
River info: Mellow, fun river with no significant rapids (just riffles). Nice side canyon hikes with ruins and rock art. Most do this as a one-day trip, but it can be floated as an overnight. There are lots of nice campsites at side canyons.
