Gray Canyon and the Island in the Sky
Saturday & Sunday, August 4-5, 2012
On Saturday I met up with Jackson and his family so that we could float a section of the Green River known as the Green River Daily. This section is a few miles long and located within Gray Canyon a few miles north of the town of Green River. There aren’t really any big rapids on this stretch of the river, especially at this year’s very low water flows, so we were just expecting a nice relaxing float with a lot of swimming to stay cool. I also hoped to find some new petroglyphs along the way.
After dropping off my Jeep at the Swaseys Rapid takeout, we continued in Jackson’s Prius to the put-in at Nefertiti. The last time I was on this road it had been freshly bladed and I don’t recall it being too rough, but unfortunately this time around it was a bit rocky and almost too much for the Prius. The most difficult part was through a few stretches of sand that he had to power through. Luckily, he somehow managed to get that little car to the end of the road without getting stuck or scraping up the bottom too badly. If he hadn’t, we would have been walking back to the Jeep and not getting on the river.
After reaching the put-in at Nefertiti, we got our boats setup under the shade of a large cottonwood tree.
Getting Ready by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr
Ready to get on the river for the day.
Ready to Launch by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr
Just around the first bend we paddled under the large Nefertiti Rock.
Below Nefertiti by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr