someone explain this to me...these guys float down rivers...voluntarily...and DON'T fish??? 

 

The Colorado River - Ruby and Horsethief Canyons   

The Colorado River, originally known as the Grand River, springs to life as a tiny stream in the high country of Rocky Mountain National Park, in north-central Colorado. It flows lazily through high alpine meadows and, later, through several deep granite gorges, on its westward track across Colorado. When it reaches Grand Junction, one of Colorado's biggest cities situated at the confluence of the Colorado and the Gunnison Rivers, it finally meets its destiny as a master high desert stream. Picking up additional flow and sediments from the Gunnison, the river continues westward across the border and in to Utah...this country marks the eastern border of Canyon Country, where mountain terrain gradually gives way to the vast and tortuously carved sandstone canyons that characterize the American Southwest. Hundreds of miles downstream, the Colorado pounds its way through the spectacular Grand Canyon...but it is here, at Ruby and Horsethief Canyons, where the river first encounters the Canyon Country it is so widely associated with. 

Ruby-Horsethief is a Class 1-2 run, about twenty miles in length straddling the state border between Colorado and Utah. The scenery is very nice, with towering canyon walls and one section, known as Black Rocks, where the exposed rock strata comprises some of the oldest known rocks in the world, dating back 1.5 billion years....the Grand Canyon is the only other place in the world where these rocks, black schist, are visible. Although it is frequently discussed, this run is not yet permitted by the BLM. 

We've run Ruby-Horsethief twice together. These are shots from our first trip in July, 1989. I shared space in a canoe with one of Karin's friends...let's just say, river canoeing isn't likely to become a sudden passion for me. Been there, done that, where's my raft? But, this WAS my first overnight river trip...  

Looking downstream from our first campsite. July 1989. 

 

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