Hey everyone!

I just got back from a three-day trip on the San Juan River. I've been whitewater rafting a handful of times, but this was my first overnight trip. Since it's spring, the water was very cold and muddy, but it was warm in the sun.

We loaded up the boats and shoved off at Sand Island Campground.

After a few miles of floating, we got the Butler Wash Petroglyph Panel. The first thing I noticed were a bunch of holes carved into the rocks, called Moki steps. Then there were HUGE panels that you could see from the river. We pulled over for a quick stop.

Just below the Butler Wash panels, we stopped again at the River House. It's estimated these dwellings were occupied by the Ancestral Puebloans sometime between 900 and the late 1200s. At the site there are pictographs, petroglyphs, and multiple rooms to explore.

On the way back to the boat I noticed some beaver prints. We shoved off from the site and set up camp at Lime Ridge, a short way down for the evening.

I've been wanting to learn how to do night photography, so I recently bought a new wide angle lens. I woke up that night to play around with it and I was able to get a shot I'm pretty proud of for the first go around.

The next morning we hiked a short bit up to Comb Ridge. Along the way we found lots of cool bit of historic and prehistoric garbage including pot sherds and an old Shasta can.

A short way up Comb Ridge, you can get a good view of the river and surrounding geology.

One of the prominent features is the Mules Eat diatreme. Apparently you can find garnet in the area if you're looking in the right spot.

Back at camp we packed up and put back on the river. Not too long after, we entered the San Juan Canyon.

The beautiful orange and cream colors of the canyon walls set against the blue sky was spectacular. Since the river was running pretty high we could mostly sit and watch the scenery move by us. Around each bend were more and more beautiful views.

We pulled over for the night to camp at Lower Eight Foot. The afternoon light on the walls was awesome. It acted like a giant reflector. It made the whole canyon and everything in it glow like it does during a sunrise or sunset. It was something I hadn't ever seen before. We also got to see a pretty cool moon set.

That night I woke up again to take a few night shots. It was a little cloudy, so not as good as the night before, but still fun to try some long exposure stuff with the river.

The area we camped was just above a desert bighorn habitat area so I was keeping my fingers crossed for a sighting. I've seen plenty of sheep, both Dall and Rocky Mountain,  just not desert bighorn. We shoved off and we were all keeping an eye out. Sure enough, a ewe and a lamb made an appearance for us near the river that morning.

Slowly, the canyon walls got lower and lower as we floating towards the takeout at Mexican Hat. 

Once we were out of the canyon, the wind picked up a bit so I took my turn rowing to make sure we didn't float back up river.

I was kind of curious how the area got the name of Mexican Hat, but when I saw the feature, I got it.

Trip Notes: It was too cold for swimming and the water had so much dirt in it that my hands were constantly chapped, but it was a great first trip. We had a good combination of hiking and floating, and there is so much to see. Geology, views, fossils, history and prehistory, etc. I'll have a couple more chances to flat the same stretch later this year in June and July so it will be fun to see the difference the time of year makes. Over all great trip!