The Colorado River (Westwater Canyon)

One the last stretches of the Colorado River to be successfully navigated, Westwater Canyon is a 20+ mile trip through an outstanding sandstone and black schist canyon, located in the extreme eastern part of central Utah. Most of the run is moderate to fast moving flat water...but the middle seven or eight miles packs some of the best whitewater on the Colorado River outside the Grand Canyon. Rapids like Funnel Falls (a steep drop on either side of a large mid-stream boulder) and Marble Canyon (long, splashy wave train) keep boaters busy and alert through the Canyon's narrowest stretches.

The highlight of a Westwater trip, at just about any flow level, is Skull, a very nasty stretch of Class 4 whitewater that starts as V-shaped wave, leads boaters more or less directly into Skull rock (or hole, at higher flow), and provides one last menace with The Room of Doom, a remarkable 3-sided chamber carved into the sandstone at the foot of the rapid. At most flows, boaters unlikely enough to get caught in there will have a very difficult time extricating themselves, and plenty of equipment has been lost or abandoned because boaters were unable to break the powerful currents blocking the Room's entrance.    

The river is managed by the Bureau of Land Management in Moab, UT, and a permit is required to run the river all year.

Towering sandstone formation in the upper portion of the canyon, several miles before the whitewater starts. August 1997.

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