101 Main St / P.O. Box 118
Bluff, Utah 84512-0118 Fax (435) 672-2365 Toll Free (800) 422-7654 
Launch Dates for One-day Trips Upper canyon one-day trips are available almost every day between March and October. Though it's best to reserve your trip well in advance, we can usually accommodate walk-in customers for trips the next day. "Our day-trip on the San Juan River was the highlight of our entire Four Corners area tour!" Howard, London U.K. |
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 1 Day Upper Canyon
Location: Upper canyon; 26 miles from Bluff to Mexican Hat OverviewOur one-day adventure is great for archaeology or geology buffs, first time boaters or travelers with limited time. We journey down a 26-mile section of the San Juan river in about 8 hours, making numerous stops to hike to nearby archaeological sites and fossil outcroppings as we travel through a dramatic variety of landscape and history. Most trips see native desert bighorn sheep feeding or bedding immediately adjacent to the river. Waterfowl, raptors and songbirds abound.ItineraryWe depart from Bluff at 8 a.m., via Wild Rivers vans, to the Sand Island launch ramp 4 miles west of Bluff. At the river, after safely packing away your cameras and sunscreen in dry bags, and a brief orientation on river safety, we're off!For the first few miles, the surrounding country is open. The river carries us past orange and black-streaked sandstone outcroppings. This was the home of the Anasazi, the ancient desert farming culture who lived in this area eight to twenty centuries ago. Evidence of their time here is all around us in the remains of their dwellings and the art they carved in the smooth sandstone walls rising around us. The Butler Wash petroglyph panel is our first stop. Only a few feet from the river's edge, this broad panel is filled with mysterious images pecked by the early Anasazi, the Basketmakers some 1500 years ago. Journeying a little further down river, we land again and make a quarter mile hike to "River House," a Pueblo III style cliff dwelling. This structure has a small round kiva and several adjoining rooms tucked into a rock alcove. It is estimated to be about 800 years old. After we finish exploring this site we continue down the river and find a shady spot to eat our lunch, under the canopy of a cottonwood. When our journey continues, the rock formations begin to take prominence as the river enters the Monument Upwarp, a giant wrinkle in the skin of the earth. Then we pass through the Comb Ridge Monocline and the Lime Ridge Anticline. The river here narrows and cuts a deep canyon into 300 million year old Pennsylvanian limestone, and the current quickens as small rapids and riffles rock the boat. Near "8-Foot Rapid," the undulating pattern in the rock reveals the presence of "bioherms," porous mounds in an ancient shallow sea that act as reservoir rock, "capturing" oil which is found in abundance in this area. If we're lucky, we may get a glimpse of several Desert Bighorn Sheep as they graze above us on narrow rock shelves or a beaver napping under a ledge. Mid-afternoon, we stop to look for fossils in the limestone. As we near the end of our trip the river leaves the canyon and we pass beneath the balanced slab of "Mexican Hat" rock. Our next landing ends our river trip where Wild Rivers vans are waiting to transport us back to Bluff offering further opportunities to view the dramatic red rock of the Valley of the Gods and a very different passage through Comb ridge than our river trip allowed. We arrive back in Bluff around 5 p.m. and our adventure has come to a finish. Note: During higher flows we will row the rafts, while at lower flows we will use small motors, enabling us to cover the same section of river throughout the season. Suggested ReadingHUMAN PREHISTORYLegacy On Stone: Rock Art of the Colorado Plateau and Four Corners Region Sally Cole Ice Age Peoples Of North America: Environments, Origins, and Adaptations Robson Bonnickson, ed. Humans at the End of the Ice Age : The Archaeology of the Pleistocene-Holocene Transition Lawrence Strauss Ed. The Long Summer: How Climate Changed Civilization Brian Fagan Those Who Came Before Robert and Florence Lister Enemy Ancestors Gary Matlock Ancient Ruins of the Southwest David Noble Indian Rock Art of the Southwest Polly Schaafsma Richard Witherill: Anasazi Frank McNitt The Book of Navajo Raymond Locke The Book of Hopi Frank Waters Collapse Jared Diamond HISTORY Traders of the Navajo Frances Gillmore and Louise Wetherill Explorations of the Colorado River and its Canyons John Wesley Powell Hole in the Rock Expedition David Miller San Juan County, Utah Allan Kent Powel Anchored Lariats on the San Juan Frontier Norma Perkins Young Encounters With the Archdruid John McPhee River Runners of the Grand Canyon David Lavender Crossing the Next Meridian Charles Wilkinson Fire on the Plateau Charles Wilkinson Mormon Country Wallace Stegner The Gathering of Zion Wallace Stegner Conversations on History and Literature Wallace Stegner Reopening the Western Frontier People's History of Wilderness Water in the West High Country News Books (various authors and editors, see: www.hcn.org) Reclaiming the Native Home of Hope Robert Keiter New Genesis : M ormon Reader on Land and Community Terry Tempest Williams, Ed. Cadillac Desert: The American West and its Disappearing Water Mark Reisner Glen Canyon Before Lake Powell Eleanor Inskip GEOLOGY The Colorado Plateau Don Baars Geology of the Canyons of the San Juan Don Baars San Juan Canyons (River Guide) Don Baars and Gene Stevenson Life in Stone: Fossils of the Colorado Plateau Christa Saddler NATURAL HISTORY The Ice-Age History of Southwestern National Parks Scott A. Elias Packrat middens: The last 40,000 years of biotic change Julio Betancourt & Tom Van Devender A Naturalist's Guide to Canyon Country David Williams Eating Stone Ellen Meloy Wind in the Rock Ann Zwinger Run River Run Ann Zwinger Desert Plants of Utah Berniece A. Andersen Grasses of the Southwestern United States Frank W. Gould Sibley Field Guide to North American Birds David Allan Sibley Singing Stone Thomas Lowe Fleischner A Field Guide to Mammals A Field Guide to Reptiles and Amphibians A First Guide to Insects of North America A First Guide to Butterflies and Moths These are all Peterson Guide Books OTHER FICTION AND NON-FICTION Desert Solitaire Abbey The Monkey Wrench Gang Abbey The Sound of Mountain Water Wallace Stegner A Thief of Time Tony Hillerman Listening Woman Tony Hillerman The Dark Wind Tony Hillerman Coyote Waits Tony Hillerman Coyote's Canyon Terry Tempest Williams Pieces of White Shell Terry Tempest Williams Red Terry Tempest Williams Refuge Terry Tempest Williams Ceremony Leslie Mormon Silko Waterlines Ann Weiler Walka TestimonialsSubmit a Testimonial »“What a great time! Everyone was knowledgeable, professional, friendly, engaging, and humorous. I loved the scenery and learned about past cultures. But more importantly, I could feel the connection our guides (Marcus and Colleen) had to the land and their ancestral heritage. It allowed me to see the land in different ways -- not just harsh and desolate. What a wonderful experience! ” - A. Stone, |
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