We Survived Kayaking the Colorado River!

We're way behind in getting travel posts published because we were having way too much fun traveling! So we won't be confused about when each "wandering" happened, we'll start each blog with its actual date.

July 26, 2023

We were still in Kremmling, Colorado, probably best known for its proximity to some of the best rafting on the Colorado River. After our drive down Trough Road two days ago to check out the put-in and take-out spots on the river, we were prepared for our kayaking adventure.

The water was flowing at a rate of 1130 cubic feet per second, and the water temperature was a chilly 55 degrees. The warning sign at the Pump House Recreation Area warned that water flows were high, with rapids and "raft flipping holes at eye of the needle and Yarmony." Okay, we have been warned. According to another sign, the river was flowing at a rate that requires an intermediate skill. Denisa prefers beginner-skill rivers, but she found that Mark's preference was more toward the expert range.

We were ready to enter the river at 9:00, which is earlier than most float trips start. But we had seen the forecast for afternoon rain storms, and we didn't want to get wet. You'll notice one difference in the picture below. Most pre-kayaking pictures include a life jacket that is loosely draped over the shoulders with no buckles buckled. Mark insisted that Denisa's life jacket was cinched up tight and with all three latches buckled. Why was he being so careful with our kayaking gear this morning?

Even though the current was high for this time of the year, the water looked pretty smooth at our put-in spot at the Pump House. 

We had beautiful blue skies as we started our ten-mile journey down the river.

We shared the river canyon with the train tracks. A long line of oil tanker cars passed by, and then disappeared into the tunnel.

Soon, our placid water turned into rapids, and we weren't taking pictures for a while. Wow! That stretch of river was the toughest we have ever gone through in our inflatable kayak! The water was coming over the bow as we struggled to keep the boat straight and not bump into the boulders through the fastest water. It wasn't until the water calmed down again that Denisa could get the camera back out to get a shot of the rising walls of the canyon.

Remember that chilly 55 degree water? We were now wet and sitting in it. We can confirm that our Sea Eagle kayak can float the weight of two adults, plus an entire boat-load of river water. Denisa was completely drenched in the front of the boat.

Mark's view from the back of the boat was also soggy. We stopped by the side of the river to dump the water out before we continued.

We're not sure why we went to the trouble of dumping the water, because we were entering the narrowest part of the canyon--the eye of the needle. Narrow means that the flow of the water quickened as it was forced into a smaller space. It was time to put the camera away again!

We made another stop to empty out the water. While Mark was getting wet in the back of the boat, Denisa was wet from head to foot in the front. She was beginning to understand why Mark insisted our life jackets were tightly buckled. She had to giggle that this morning we were worried about getting caught in the rain and getting wet

Mark's seat was floating when he got out. We've never had this much water inside the boat!

Now that we had survived several series of rapids, we decided to try to take some pictures. We left our good camera and our cell phones at home for this soggy trip. But we did bring an old phone along, attached to a strap that we could tie onto our life jacket. Denisa tried to hold the phone steady as we started through some rapids.

As you can see from the pictures, the nose of the kayak was very often below the water as the rapids forced it downward.

As quickly as the current was taking us down-stream, we were still passed by another train.

Our next landmark was the canyon that is home to Radium Hot Springs.

We had read about a hike down to the hot springs at the edge of the Colorado River. We almost kayaked right past the springs without noticing them, as they were hidden at the foot of the canyon walls.

When we zoomed in, we could see the heads of a couple guys soaking in the hot water. They were inside the rock-lined natural hot springs at the edge of the 55-degree river water.

It's hard to tell the scale of things from a picture, but the rock walls soared high above us as we entered the hot springs area of the Colorado River. All along this river we felt like we had wandered into God's wonders.

We saw our first boat of the morning as we floated past the cliff jump. This group had a guide in their raft, and he led them up the slippery rock to the top of the cliff.

We watched as they jumped into the cold water below.

We continued down the river at a pretty fast pace. The riffles let us know when to expect faster currents and perhaps more water inside the boat.

At other times, it almost felt like the river had turned into a lake. We even had to dip our oars into the the water and row a couple times.

Without the good camera on board, we were limited to old cell phone technology that just couldn't get a clear wildlife picture. But we saw lots of birds along the river. We found ducks, geese, and herons.

Even though the pictures were blurry, Denisa would take them anyway. We saw this group of magpies on a rock in the river, and they didn't bother to fly away as we floated by them.

We were really wishing for our good camera when we floated right under an eagle perched in a tree at the side of the river.

We made another stop to dump the water out of the kayak, and we were glad that it was warming up a bit. We've been wet and sitting in water all morning, so the July sunshine felt good to us.

By this time, we had gotten used to the exhilaration of going through the rapids. We had taken so many pictures that the old phone was running out of battery. So we took fewer pictures on the second half of the journey down the river.

After seeing a couple freight trains, we were passed by the passenger Amtrak train. One kayaker told us that it was customary to moon the Amtrak train as it went by. 

But we will report that only the sun was shining in our kayak as the train went by. Besides trains, we were being chased by a wall of clouds that was building up over the foothills around us.

The bank of clouds was turning an ominous shade of gray, as we came to the end of our ten-mile adventure.

We arrived at our take-out spot at Rancho del Rio at 12:15. We dumped the water out of the kayak for the last time, and started drying out the boat--and everything that was in it. Even though we had a couple bags tied onto our boat, we discovered that our picnic lunch had managed to float out during one of the many encounters with rapids. 

We were hoping that we could get the boat dry before the rain started and got it wet again. We paid $50 for the folks at Rancho del Rio to drive our pickup the eleven miles from Pump House (where we put the kayak into the water) to their take-out spot at their "resort." Our pickup was guaranteed to arrive by 1:00. But it was a little late, and we were a little early. The owner of the little river resort was surprised to see that anyone had already finished the river trip this early in the day. He thought we made record time. But we were glad we started early to avoid the incoming storm.

It was an adventure! Now Denisa understands why Mark made her tighten up her life preserver before we started. He had read some detailed warning about this day's adventure. This was serious white water rafting and we had maneuvered through it on our own! We loaded up the kayak and drove back to our campground in Kremmling, where the aspens were still staring at us. This little town has been a great stop for us to wander more of God's wonders, and we survived kayaking the Colorado River!