A friend from Cedar City invited me to go down Virgin River through Virgin River gorge in Arizona. It's the section that you drive through going down to Vegas. The stretch goes through the whole canyon and takes about 5-6 hours to get through on a kayak.
The river never runs big enough to float it, so the current flow is first in 7 years. I had to jump on the invite. I took my inflatable canoe with oars, I also had a friend on the front paddling.
Sadly, my battery ran out 1/3 of the way through it and I missed the big rapids. There are about 5-6 class III and one class IV rapids. The class IV was mean looking! Must make moves, rocks, obstacles, 4-5 foot drops and current. If you stay in the current, it was fairly simple, if you missed the line you'd be pushed into a nasty rock garden.
I loved this section, the drive through Virgin River gorge is never going to be the same again for me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTAWI9rTGuE
Here are some pics from the trip:
Approaching the Big 10 rapid:
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A perfect run through Big 10:
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Virgin River fishery dam, I portaged my boat just in case (blue with oars):
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The guys ran it in a paddle raft
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