Escalante Canyon Pics

So to finish up the trip in the southwest corner of Colorado I was able to rally the local Durango boys for some warmer weather and desert boating. Luckily Escalante is the one drainage that hadn’t completely dropped out due to all the cold weather.

Coming from Durango to escalante is one of the more beautiful drives you can do in Colorado. You climb multiple mountain passes with slow speeds so you can really take in the views. Brianne, being from Michigan, is not quite as used to the views, and the no guard rails, and the steep drop offs, and the piles of rock falling in the road, or snow in May, so I took it slow while she gripped the passenger side o-Sh%t bar. Of course we made it no problem.

Showing up in the canyon just in time for a sweet moon-rise

Camping in the desert is awesome, we had a sweet fire, grilled some bratwurst and drank some cold beer. During the night Cruise and I peeked over the rim with some bright headlamps to see the main Falls completely raging and what is normally a rocky mess, totally filled in with brown sudsy water. The morning came and we were not disappointed with what we saw. Flows had held strong and we saw med-high in the gorge. The fin was long gone underwater at 57 chevy for those who know the gauge. Entering the lower gorge when flows are high definitely means you bring your game. While the moves are not insanely hard, the combination of dark water (where you can’t see the rocks), and pushy flows means you just need to be precise.

The falls still goes smooth at higher flows just the auto-boof is trickier to catch. I took the camera down in to catch a shot up close for the first lap. Here is Cruise Quenelle and Cody Beach.

On the second lap flows had come down a little more but still super fun. The higher the water the better the boogie water goes up top. I’m so lucky to have Brianne along to take such awesome photos seen below. She’s getting some awesome shots and I’m sure they’re going to just keep getting better. Scott Young and Baird (sorry forgot last name) joined us for our second lap through with some good style.

The crew: