Dolores River - Slickrock to Gateway

Day One

The Dolores hasn’t run since they finished McPhee Dam eight years ago and it seemed to be making up for lost time. No eddies, campsites overgrown, swift currents, incredible canyons, steep ochre walls with deep green trees, tamarisks, beautiful flowers, and blooming cactus. It was like stepping out of time to when wilderness was wild.

We picked up a last minute addition to the roster last night, a leprechaun named Rocky. He’s self-contained, there’s no impact on our meals and water supply so we decide what the heck, how often do you get to run a river with a leprechaun and bring him along. Rob’s on the lookout for rainbows now. Up at 7:00 am. Breakfast, get cars together, and launch at 12:00 pm. Lots of mini rapids one class II had 20 seconds to notice. Camp at Gypsum, Alien artifacts right below last rapid, southeast across the road. Fast moving current, and two boaters missed the take out. But together we pulled them upstream about 50 feet. Set up kitchen, set up tents, drink a beer and wait for dinner. Corrine and Ali fix vegetarian Thai noodles, underestimated how much to fix, but everyone shared. Grand finale, brownies in Dutch oven!!!!