Canyonlands 2009 - Canoe trip through Labyrinth Canyon

Green River Labyrinth Canyon River Float

Mid October 2009

A year ago, I went down on a 5 day/4 night canoe trip down The Green River’s Stillwater Canyon and out at the Confluence of that river and the mighty Colorado River. Dave, Rocky and Andrew joined me on that trip, which unfortunately had a couple of nasty rainy days, resulting in me becoming quite ill. Nonetheless, it was an unforgettable trip. So this year we all agreed to do it again, this time through Labyrinth Canyon.

Unfortunately, Andrew had to drop out with about 10 days to go due to personal business. So Dave was able to get Bo to join us at the last minute. He was supposed to go on a Cataract Canyon river trip during this time, but that was cancelled at the last minute – so he was happy to join us.

The drive:
Bo, Dave and I took off in the middle of the afternoon, with plans on meeting up with Rocky that night at a small campground outside of Moab. Rocky was driving up from his new home in New Mexico. We stopped off at the river town of Green River, UT – a small town on the banks of The Green River and just off I-70. When Dave and I were in the Grand Canyon 2 weeks earlier and met up with a Commercial River party on the river, we met a guide on that group – Randy. He actually used to live in Ivins, UT where Dave and I live. And he was good friends with Bo. So we promised we’d call him when we got to his town in Green River, and meet up at an old, classic Tavern in the middle of town. We had a good visit drinking a beer or two and a great burger. Randy seems like a true river rat, working half the year on the river, running the rapids. In fact, he and a friend had plans to get on the Green River on Saturday for the fist day of deer season and try their hand at shooting deer along the river banks.

In the dark, we drove the rest of the way to the outskirts of Moab, drove off to find our old campground just off the Colorado River. We stayed there last night, when we had the whole campground to ourselves. This time, we were not so lucky. The small campground was almost full, and in the dark we tried to find a spot to camp. Dave and Rocky just slept in the back of their Pickups, so they were fine. Bo and I pitched our tents at what we thought was a good spot, until we saw some young 20 year olds walk right between our tents, each carrying a 12 pack of beer and indicating to us that we were camped in their campground spot. So Bo moved his tent closer to the parking lot; and I moved mine near a picnic table that ended up being on the little path between the rest of the campspots and the restroom.

All night long young campers walked right past my tent; and all night long they partied away. Cars came and went, honking their horns occasionally when they tried to lock their cars. It was one of the worst camping experiences I have ever had. It was during this night when I was thinking – why am I doing this? I could be home at my quiet house in Kayenta in a comfortable bed. No loud college kids partying 20 yards away and all night long? At least it didn’t rain that night, which the weather forecast was predicting.

Day 1 – On the river
Bright and early, we caught the canoe shuttle from Moab to Ruby Ranch – a long 1 ½ hour drive – half of which was on a bumpy dirt road. There were 2 other canoe groups with us. A couple who just started their own Non Profit Health Food organization and were travelling the country, and doing a 97 mile river trip. There was a young couple who were doing the same portion of the river that we were, but in 1 less day.

We arrived at the old Ruby Ranch along the river just before 11:00 am. This is an old ranch that grows alfalfa in it’s lush, fertile land along the river. It’s probably the only such ranch for miles and miles. We got our canoes all loaded up at the launching spot, and off we went. At first, it was our 2 canoes and the other 2 groups together, but soon we left them in our dust!! At least until we found our first camp spot for the night
SEE PHOTO”S 1 and 2

Ruby Ranch is at river mile 97 and we were going to head down to Mineral Bottom for take-out at river mile 52. With 3 full days and a couple of half days, we had plenty of time and were in no particular hurry. So on this first day, we were planning on going just 7 miles to our 1st night’s camping spot. As the weather forecast predicted, it was a cloudy day, and the slight chance of rain. The real problem this day was the headwind all the way. It made us put more effort into our paddling – as well as the water was a little choppy and actually a few waves hitting us head-on. It wasn’t nearly as bad as what we experienced last year on 1 or 2 of our bad days of weather. But it wasn’t ideal for canoeing.

Around mid afternoon we arrived at river mile 90, at Three Canyon beach. There was 1 canoe there when we arrived, but he said he was just leaving for the day. So we had the whole beach apparently to ourselves. And it was indeed the prime camp spot on this stretch of the river. So we claimed it, just as the Health Group couple (who by this time had met up with their friends on the river) canoed by. They pulled over to the beach, but they were just planning on doing a little hiking up the canyon and then paddle on down the river for a few more miles. We then also saw the younger couple from our shuttle group paddling by, they were going backwards, perhaps on purpose in trying to avoid the stiff headwinds.

Bo, Rocky, Dave and I were content to call it a day as far as paddling, and set up camp.
SEE PHOTO”S 3-5

We all went up the canyon for a little day hike, climbing up a few of the canyons. There were a number of short side canyons, which we explored. The cottonwood trees were turning golden and bright yellow from the fall colors, so it made it a very picturesque canyon. There we also some strange man-made carvings in rocks.
SEE PHOTO”S 6-19

We all went our separate ways after the first side-canyon, I went up the main canyon and enjoyed the curving creek and the trees and the rocks. Dave went up a side canyon with Bo for awhile and then went back to camp. Bo climbed up a steep rocky area, like he likes to do. No one saw him, but he said he was climbing up a steep, tricky spot when his hands lost hold of the rock and he went flying backwards into a rocky, brushy area. He didn’t hit his head, but his 2 elbows took the brunt of the fall. When he limped back into the camp where Dave and I were sitting, he showed us his 2 bloody, scraped elbows.

Of all the people that I’ve heard about in southern Utah, as well as ones I’ve met, Bo is probably at the top of the field as far as what he has done as far as rock climbing, hiking, exploring and experiences. He is currently the longest tenured Search and Rescuer in Zion National Park. He is also called many times for SAR’s in nearby Grand Canyon National Park. He also manages the only Outdoor, camping, backpacking and climbing gear store in St. George area. Dave and I both respect him more than probably any of the legends of canyon country. So it was quite an honor to be on this same trip as some one as respected as Bo. And this fall causing cuts to his elbow didn’t seem to faze him in the least.

Meanwhile, where was Rocky? I thought he was back at the camp with Dave; and Dave thought he was back in the canyon with me. But there was no sign of him; and just an hour earlier before we took off on our separate hikes, he had showed us a huge scar on his chest where just 6 months earlier he had a major heart valve surgery. Now, back at the camp and with no sign of him, we were wondering if he had a massive heart attack somewhere back in one of the canyons. No one had seen him once we all went our separate ways up different side canyons.

First, Bo took off looking for him – living up to his SAR (Search and Rescue) duties. Then I went back towards the last spot I had seen Rocky, but with no luck. Then Dave went off for about 20 minutes looking for him. We all came back to camp, but no sign of Rocky. As we were discussing our options (i.e. how to carry out his body in the canoe), we see him strolling nonchalantly back to camp. He had no idea we were looking for him and evidently he had somehow passed by me in the main canyon and he had gone a mile or so beyond me. We were glad to have him still with us, so we just relaxed at our camp the rest of the night, ate and drank well, and enjoyed ourselves.

The clouds were finally clearing slightly and the threat of rain was diminishing, although we did feel a couple of drops. Because of this, we all slept in tents this night. And off we went the next morning for another day.
SEE PHOTO”S 20-22


Day 2 - To Keg Canyon

The previous day on the river, our first day, we canoed 7 miles in about 2 ½ hours. Most of that time was a good, strong headwind and some waves coming at us. This day, day 2 on the river, there was nothing but blue skies and no wind at all. The water was as calm as could be. We were entering Labyrinth Canyon in full force now, surrounded by desert cliffs, 500 feet high on each side of the river. There were some Cottonwood trees showing off their autumn golden colors. The river curved round and round each bend, never going straight for more than a mile at that the most, with each bend giving you another magnificent view of the canyon; as well as smaller side canyons on each side of the river.
SEE PHOTO”S 23-32

There was a spot that Bo and Dave pulled their canoe into a nice overhang to get out of the sun. At this point, Rocky and I were on the other bank of the river and we saw 2 big Bucks just on the bank, no more than 30 feet to our right. When the other canoe caught up to us a mile downriver, we saw another buck on the left bank. Poor things, they must know that hunting season was just 2 days in the future – I hope they survived the onslaught of the all the hunters soon to come.

This day there were basically no real good side canyons to explore or hike up. The biggest along the way was Hey Joe Canyon, but due to the old uranium mine up the canyon, we chose to bypass it. So after going 11 miles (from river mile 90 to 79), we pulled into the next best canyon to hike – Keg Spring Canyon. This would be our 2nd night of camping along the river.

Keg Spring was a nice beach camp, but I didn’t like it as much as the previous night’s Three-Alcove beach. According to my notes on the map, there was a mention of some ‘ruins’ up this canyon, but other than that we had no clue what or where. So we all went on up the canyon looking. None of us had any luck, although Bo did hike up to a high ledge under a large alcove and thought he saw remains of some type of a granary – or something like that. But he wasn’t totally sure. In fact, we didn’t know until getting back to the car on the way home that indeed what he saw was probably the ruins – based on a book that I had about the hiking in this area.

Back at the camp, we set out to do what we did every night. That is, we built a camp fire, cooked and ate our dinners, sat around a big camp fire and drank Seagram’s, beer and wine; and talked and talked. The main thing I didn’t like about this camp spot was the bank was very steep and not easy to get down to the actual water. At night, when it was dark and you were trying to get to the bank of the river to pee into the river, you risked your life standing on the sand 12 feet above the river below – hoping the side didn’t cave in on you and sending you belly smacking into the water.
SEE PHOTO 33

Day 3 – Bowknot Bend
After another good breakfast, we were off in our canoes – the highlight of today was going to be Bowknot Bend about 9 miles downriver. But first, we came across ‘The River Register’ about 1 mile down from our start. This is more or less modern graffiti on river left, etched in the cliffs. There was some that went back 50 years or so, but most of it was recent. There was also some nice drawings.
SEE PHOTO’s 34-38
As our canoes were anchored to shore, one of our paddles fell out into the river (won’t mention whose it was, Rocky). Luckily it got stuck in an eddy and didn’t get caught in the current and washed downstream.
SEE PHOTO’s 39-41
So off we were again, onto the river. Like yesterday, there was no wind at all and the water was calm. The current usually went about 4 miles per hour, so on calm days you could just effortlessly cruise down the river at about 4 mph’s. If you really wanted to get going, you could paddle hard and go about 8 mph. Most of the time we went down river at a nice, easy pace.
SEE PHOTO’s 42 thru 45

Right about lunch time, we came to river mile 70, our destination for the next couple of hours. This was Bowknot Bend. At this time, I’ll quote John W. Powell from 7/15/1869 when he and his men first saw this part of the river on their first river trip down the Green River and then eventually Colorado River through what would eventually become the Grand Canyon.“We go around a great bend to the right, five miles, and come back to within a quarter of a mile of where we started. Then we sweep another great bend to the left, 9 miles, and come back to within 600 yards of the beginning of the bend. The men call it a ‘bowknot’ of river; so we name it Bowknot Bend’.

We pull out at a nice narrow beach with lots of shade, and eat a nice lunch (and a beer or two). Then up we climb, about 400-500 feet up loose scree and rocks, but a well-marked trail up to the saddle. At the saddle, there was a nice trail along the ridgeline that went from one side of the saddle to the other. While on the ridgeline, you could look to your right (the north) and be looking down at the Green River ; and then if you look to the left (the south) you see the Green River. So you can see the same river looking both directions, separated by about 300-400 yards. It takes the river 7 miles to loop around the bend to complete the Bowknot. At the top, there were also many etchings in the side of the cliff – one of which contained the last name ‘Powell’. Doubt if it’s John Wesley Powell’s name, but we’ll pretend it was.
SEE PHOTO’s 46 thru 54

Back to the beach, and few more beers, we got back into the canoe to take the 7 mile loop on the river, next stop was to find a good place to camp. Again, with perfect blue skies and no wind to speak of, we drifted on down the river. The Seagrums that I brought ended up in Bo’s canoe, and I assume he put it to good use on this glorious afternoon. In fact, after about an hour we saw their canoe head over to a pull out – Rocky and I had no idea why. But they had spotted an old bull dozer in an abandoned coal mine – the dozer sitting up half way up a steep and slippery slope. Bo had to investigate.
SEE PHOTO’s 55 thru 62

One not so bright spot along this stretch of river was the existence of an old Jeep road along the left bank of the river, for about 8 miles. Once in awhile you’d hear an ATV or motorbike zooming by, thus disturbing the silence along the river. And most of the riders didn’t bother us folks on the river. But there were the usual couple ATV’ers who had to yell out to us on the river – such as the usual intelligent comment of ‘HEY’!

As Bo and Dave were checking out the old Bulldozer, Rocky and I continued on. It was getting later in the afternoon and we were searching for a good campsite. Two miles from the bulldozer, we spotted a big beach island up ahead. But as we approached we saw way up high to our right a beautiful monument spire, almost looking like 5 large fingers. To me, this was the most spectacular sight we’d see along the river on our trip. PHOTO 65

We pulled onto the island and figured it would be the best spot for this night, so we pulled out our chairs and awaited the other canoe to see if it was fine with them. We waited about 30 minutes and we finally saw the canoe heading towards us. By this time, it appeared Bo had enjoyed enough of the Seagrums to make you wonder if he’d get pulled over to CUI (canoeing under the influence). They slammed into the shore and we all agreed to stay on the island for the night. It was a nice spot, just no fire wood on the island for our camp fire. But Bo would rectify that, he just waded across the river to the other shore and came back with enough fire wood to keep us warm all night long and the next morning.
SEE PHOTO’s 63 thru 66 (63 shows the seagrum in center of photo; at this time far enough away from all of us – by this time we’d have enough of that stuff)

Once the sun set on our little island in the middle of the river, it got cool real quick – unless you were by the fire. And Bo, in his effort to cross the cold river to get wood, was soaking wet at this time. So he spent the bulk of the rest of the night getting as close to the fire with his wet clothes in an attempt to dry off. Sometimes it appeared he would fall backwards into the fire, but luckily that didn’t happen. This was one of the most entertaining and enjoyable time around the campfire this night, with our only argument of the trip erupting – Bo was being hostile towards us about the fact we all liked ‘IN and OUT Burger’.

That night we all slept under the stars, no tents. The sky was crystal clear, thousands of stars, great view of the Milky Way; a number of shooting stars all night long. The only problem, it got damp sleeping out there in the middle of the river and we got covered with dew and water – all over our sleeping bags and tarps, etc.. It took us an hour or so the next morning to hang our gear on a line and let the sun dry it all out. But luckily we didn’t have too far to go in the canoe this 2nd to last day on our trip. The previous day, we went all the way around the Bowknot Bend to our camp – in total 16 miles. Today we didn’t have too far to go

Day 4 – Two Mile Canyon and Arch
But where we were going was going to be perhaps the highlight of the trip. From our morning camp sight, we only had 2 easy miles to Two Mile Canyon. First, we drifted by the southern face of the Bowknot Bend Saddle. If we chose, the day before we could have skipped the last 7 miles of canoeing and just climbed from the other side of that saddle, at the beach along that portion of the river, hiked up about 400 or so feet to the ridge-line and dropped down to the other side. Of course, we would of have to haul the canoe and all it’s gear, so we chose to just take the easy route by drifting effortlessly those 7 river miles.

We pulled into the muddy and rocky beach at Two Mile Canyon just as the group of young college folks were pulling out. We saw them a day earlier at the beach at Bowknot. We asked them if they had gotten to the Arch that this canyon was noted for – Two Mile Arch. They said they hiked up the right fork of the canyon and saw a Cairn (man-made pile of rocks) but didn’t have much luck after that. But they did see another group of hikers (we passed their camp along the river ¼ mile up from where we pulled out) who were heading up this side canyon and seemed to know where they were going. The only thing my map mentioned about this arch was that it was in the North fork of the canyon, the same north fork where these hikers were evidently heading.

About ½ mile up the canyon, it branched two ways. Bo and Rocky took the left (south fork) and Dave and I went up the right (north fork). The north fork proved to be the right way. A little bit further, Dave spotted a big cairn that indicated the hiking route going up to the left. As Dave put on some socks, I headed up the well-marked but steep trail. Bo ended up heading up after Dave, and Rocky just stayed in the South Fork. So it was the 3 of us.

This was a great trail. Steep, going up this side-canyon that ended up hitting a big dry-fall, but it bypassed that barrier by going up and to the left. Then it traversed the opposite way. The trail I saw kept going to a point overlooking this canyon and with incredible views of the Moab desert spread out to the east and with the Green River way below. You could see the LaSal Mts beyond Moab and buttes and desert monuments all around. But the only thing resembling an arch was a relatively small and unimpressive ‘triangle’ arch off to the right. I figured this was the end of the hike, and the ‘triangle’ arch was what we were supposed to see. Dave came and then finally Bo. They searched the cliffs that still went up about 200 feet to the very top of the rim, but couldn’t see a break up from where we were.
SEE PHOTO’s 67 thru 69

I spotted what looked to be pretty big arch way up across the over side of the North fork of the canyon. Then you could barely see a line of 4 or 5 other hikers way up on top of the rim heading over to the arch. When I showed Bo and Dave, they were determined to get over there somehow. Plus they didn’t seem to appreciate the unimpressive ‘triangle’ arch that we saw. We went back the way we came, and they spotted a way up through a break in the cliffs above us. It ended up being quite easy – steep, but no danger of exposure to big drop offs. We easily got to the rim, and then we just needed to traverse around the head of this canyon of cool Entrada slickrock (reminding us of our hometown Snow Canyon State Park type of rock). This was a fun, easy traverse over the slickrock, going up and down and up and down and over and back.

We finally came to a spot right above the arch. We met the other group of hikers who were now leaving the arch. This arch was approximately 1500 feet above the river, at the top of the rim. It actually consisted of 5 windows or arches, 4 of which were interconnected. It had beautiful orange and yellow color, and were quite large. I can only think of 1 or 2 other arches in Utah that rival these, and those are usually visited by hundreds, if not thousands, of tourist a day. We now had these arches all to ourselves. I’ll let the photo’s tell the rest of the story. Some of the photo’s barely show the river far below, so you can see how far and high we climbed to get to this spot. Plus you can see the desert spread out forever in some of the photo’s.
SEE PHOTO’s 70 thru 81

On the way back along the rim, we came upon 1 more arch. I named it Dnally arch, after Dave – who jumped down on top of the arch. Luckily, when he jumped on top of it, it remained an arch and not a crumbling pile of rock that formerly was an arch.
SEE PHOTO’s 82 thru 85

Back to the beach and the canoe (and nice cold beer and lunch), we met up with Rocky. Although we would have loved for him to have seen the incredible Two Mile Canyon Arches, he seemed quite content. He was seen wandering above the beach along a point above the river, and he seemed to have found many cool Jade stones and other little Indian relics, mainly old tools made out of stone. That is one of Rocky’s main interest, archeology sites and ancient ruins – as well as the geology of the canyons.

We shoved off mid-afternoon from river mile 61 and our hope was to find a great camp spot 2-4 miles downriver where the sun would shine and the beach would allow us to take a nice bath. This being our last night on the river, we needed to get a little freshened up.

Two miles below river mile 61, we passed the famous Horseshoe Canyon. This was a huge canyon, quite massive at the mouth of the river. This would have been a great hike, if you had all day. In fact, if you hiked some 8 miles one-way up this canyon you would come upon what many consider the greatest display of Indian Art in the world – The Great Gallery. But we had no time to do this hike on this trip. All of us, except Bo, have already seen this site in previous years.

Just around the bend from Horseshoe, Bo and Dave spotted a perfect spot for our last camp spot. It was an island that was covered with sand for the first half and trees the bottom half of the island. It had a great view of Horseshoe Canyon to the northwest and the bend of the river to the southeast. But most importantly, a direct line of the sun with no cliffs that would block it’s heat from us until it would set at it’s normal time. The river bed was perfectly soft sand and not muddy. Perfect for baths, and you could actually walk all the way across. And almost as important, there was an endless supply of firewood – Bo didn’t need to ford the river to get wood this night.

After all of cooling off and cleaning up in the river with our baths, we sat around the perfect camp spot and drank the last of the red wine. As I sat on my chair with wine in hand, the chair (which was sitting on a slope slanting backwards) went falling back. I did a complete fall into the soft sand, doing a backwards somersault and spilling all the wine either on me or into the sand. They all got a good laugh, although I failed to see the humor in it; and I had to take a second bath in the river.
SEE PHOTO’s 86 thru 93

Our last night was as enjoyable as the rest. Again, we got wet from the damp air this night while in our sleeping bags. It wasn’t as bad as the previous night, but damp nevertheless.

Last Day:
Our last day and take out day, was like the previous 3 days, perfect weather. Clear blue skies, no wind and calm waters, and beautiful views along the river. We needed to go about 5 miles to our pullout.
SEE PHOTO’s 94 thru 97



The only stop on this short finale was at Horesthief Canyon. There was a inscription just off the river, made in 1836 by beaver trapper D. Julien. He was believed to be the first white-man to roam around these parts, some 30 years before John Wesley Powell did his river trips down this river on his way to the Grand Canyon. His claim to fame were the 5 or 6 such inscriptions all around these canyons of The Green River.

About 20 miles further up river, there was another inscription by D. Julien, although not as obvious or popular as this one. At that one, 2 days earlier, we searched and searched for about an hour but never found it. We were looking higher up above the river, but found out later that it was just barely above the river. But this particular inscription at Horsethief Canyon was found relatively easily.
SEE PHOTO’s 98 thru 101

And that was our trip! We drifted 2 more miles to our take out at Mineral Bottom, 45 miles downriver from Ruby Ranch launch site. We pulled in just as a group of 2 ladies were getting read to take off down the river to the confluence. The younger of the two wore a baseball cap with the familiar ‘O’ for Ohio State. After they took off, the shuttle driver mentioned to us that the other lady had never camped out before in her life and the previous night was the first night in her life that she actually saw the Milky Way. We also met an older guy who was doing a solo canoe trip, smoking a pipe, looking content. He had passed us the 1st day, after he had canoed 35 miles. We had evidently taken his 1st choice of camping, and had to go further downriver. His only camping spot was in some mud. In the meantime, we had the perfect camping spot at Three Alcove Canyon.

For some of us, the scariest part of the trip was still ahead – the shuttle drive out from Mineral Bottom to the rim. It was about a 1 mile drive but it went up 1,500 feet in elevation in a series of extremely steep and rocky switchbacks. There were some places where it dropped off straight down to the bottom. Along the way we saw at least a dozen bike riders making the climb out along this road – what a grind! We made it to the top and the rest of the ride had incredible scenery of Canyonlands Nt’l Park; Arches Nt’l Park in the distance, the LaSal Mts, and the rest of canyon country.

What a trip. All but the first 7 miles were as calm a water as you could wish for. All but the first 7 miles with no headwind at all. Great campsites every night, with all the luxuries that our canoes would allow us to bring:
Lawn Chair
Coleman Stove
Big Water Jugs
Coolers with ice
Beer
Wine
Whiskey
Great food
Plenty of clothing

Great fires every night, great stories.

Rocky and all his stories of Burning Man Festival and his days as a Ranger in the Army.

Bo and all his tales of sailing across the Pacific Ocean with his Dad, going to such exotic places as Fiji, New Zealand, etc… Taking 2 years to do it.

Dave talking about tales of the Grand Canyon and all his other river running experiences.

And me singing songs like The Who’s ‘Squeezebox’.

We are already planning next years canoe trip in Canyonland National Park.

I’ll conclude with a quote from Edward Abbey’s Desert Solitude. We quoted quite a lot from him on this trip, and this about sums it all up on trips such as this one:

I’m thinking, what incredible crap we put up with most of our lives – the domestic routine (same old wife every night), the stupid and useless and degrading jobs, the insufferable arrogance of elected officials, the crafty cheating and the slimy advertising of the businessmen, the tedious wars in which we kill our buddies instead of our real enemies back home in the capital, the constant petty tyranny of automatic washers and automobiles and TV machines and telephones - ………