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View Full Version : Trip Report Gunnison River: Escalante Bridge to Whitewater, Oct. 2010



gnwatts
06-12-2011, 09:35 PM
I thought I would post a report about a trip I made as part of a extended bachelors party for a friend. It will be short on details, as it is still a bit of a blur. However, I will do my best. We left Carbondale, Co around 11 am and finished the shuttle parking by about 2. The river was a little low, but still plenty deep. I rarely hit any rocks in my 16' Wenonah Idirondack. Two other rafts finished out our party. The first part of the trip was pretty exciting for me, I would say there were 2 class 2 rapids, and a vicious encounter with a tree on an outside bend in the river. We had documentation for all of these hazards but we chose to ignore our maps. Throw caution to the wind!

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3115/5827299274_332c835d69_z.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/63645185@N06/5827299274/)
ZC0D0665 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/63645185@N06/5827299274/) by g n watts (http://www.flickr.com/people/63645185@N06/), on Flickr


http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2323/5827454010_f08db2a95a_z.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/63645185@N06/5827454010/)
ZC0D0671 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/63645185@N06/5827454010/) by g n watts (http://www.flickr.com/people/63645185@N06/), on Flickr


We ended up camping just up river from Dominguez Canyon, about three hours from Escalante bridge.


http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2784/5827298584_8ea4082f68_z.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/63645185@N06/5827298584/)
ZC0D0677 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/63645185@N06/5827298584/) by g n watts (http://www.flickr.com/people/63645185@N06/), on Flickr


http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5039/5826747473_42ec3d8c86_z.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/63645185@N06/5826747473/)
ZC0D0674 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/63645185@N06/5826747473/) by g n watts (http://www.flickr.com/people/63645185@N06/), on Flickr


It was a hard fought night, a little hand to hand combat, burgers and tequila.
View down river from the camp site. Dominguez Canyon is just around the bend.



http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2089/5826746759_aacb3f3d70_z.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/63645185@N06/5826746759/)
ZC0D0678 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/63645185@N06/5826746759/) by g n watts (http://www.flickr.com/people/63645185@N06/), on Flickr


http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5305/5827297994_ab538a471b_z.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/63645185@N06/5827297994/)
ZC0D0697 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/63645185@N06/5827297994/) by g n watts (http://www.flickr.com/people/63645185@N06/), on Flickr


We left around 10 for the short float to Dominguez, we hiked up to the big water fall and then back to the boat. See my trip reports for a hike up Big Dominguez.
A short float later, with a tricky little rapid at Dominguez I think, we arrived at our camp site, on the tip of the point where the train enters a tunnel. This was a much better spot than the last one, open, room to explore and a pretty good cliff jump too.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2342/5826746101_1ebaa69950_z.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/63645185@N06/5826746101/)
ZC0D0700 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/63645185@N06/5826746101/) by g n watts (http://www.flickr.com/people/63645185@N06/), on Flickr


http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5153/5826745677_fc023b1296_z.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/63645185@N06/5826745677/)
ZC0D0705 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/63645185@N06/5826745677/) by g n watts (http://www.flickr.com/people/63645185@N06/), on Flickr


http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3568/5826745339_ca5c12c325_z.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/63645185@N06/5826745339/)
ZC0D0717 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/63645185@N06/5826745339/) by g n watts (http://www.flickr.com/people/63645185@N06/), on Flickr


The float to Whitewater was a long push due to the wind, and quite scenic. I had to paddle constantly so I have few pictures of this stretch, other that a good rock we found:


http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5160/5827296692_fe35f01700_z.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/63645185@N06/5827296692/)
ZC0D0733 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/63645185@N06/5827296692/) by g n watts (http://www.flickr.com/people/63645185@N06/), on Flickr

All in all a great 2 day float trip. You don't get the remote feeling like further down the Colorado, but it's easy to get to and quite spectacular.