Every year a big group of friends and I go camping in the Ozark National Forest in Arkansas. We have an amazing spot deep inside the park that’s pretty private but most importantly has has a big shoreline up against the Mulberry river. (Note because I was asked: Unfortunately I can’t share the location because we’ve all sworn to keep the spot as secret as possible.) Regardless, up the road before you enter the park is a little place called the Turner Bend Store. It’s a great place to stop in and get beer and ice, or delicious sandwiches that the women who run the store make. They also serve as an outfitter, renting canoes and small rafts for little day trips on the river. A handful of us have done this a few times, and while a nice way to spend a few hours it’s a little underwhelming. That got us thinking. (Cue 80s movie guys yelling in unison) CANOE TRIP!
If you’re looking for more of a relaxing float the Green River is what you’re looking for. I did a quick google image search of the Green River and holy shit I was sold.
Rafting vs Canoeing
I got to investigating and briefly explored the idea of whitewater rafting. We all live in Texas and Oklahoma so the closest suitable would be Colorado, but after some digging I found that there were very few outfitters that would do multi-day trips. We were thinking something like 3+ days and that just didn’t exist. We scrapped that idea and got back to finding a place in Colorado that would let us do an unguided trip. I’d like to think I’m pretty proficient in googling things and for whatever reason nothing was turning up, so I extended my search outside of Colorado. Enter, Canyonlands National Park in Moab, Utah.
Moab is a pretty small town in Eastern Utah but is a huge tourism spot for the adventurer type. Due to it being situated in between and next to a ton of hills and mountains there are a ton of things to do. Hiking, rock climbing, mountain biking, BASE jumping just to name a few. The town also happens to be right next to the Colorado River and about an hour east of the Green River, both of which join together in the Canyonlands. If one is looking to hit some rapids the Colorado River is the better choice. If you’re looking for more of a relaxing float down the river the Green River is what you’re looking for. I did a quick google image search of the Green River and holy shit I was sold. As an added bonus it turns out none of us had ever been to Utah before!
Finding an outfitter
First step in planning the trip would be finding an outfitter that would let us rent equipment and do our own unguided float. The city of Moab has made this process extremely easy with their tourism site Discover Moab. After perusing some of the companies I settled on the second one on their list – Moab Rafting and Canoe Company. I will say their website is a little dated looking and at first I was a little hesitant, but what it lacks in design it more than makes up for in information. Anything you could possibly want to know what a trip entails, from monthly water flow info to general info to packing lists, and the very helpful tip that the trip would require a park permit and where to get it – which you can get HERE (links to a pdf file).
Most importantly they offer exactly what we’re looking for: canoe rental for unguided 4-10 day trips, as well as a few other essentials. The canoes come in several different size and they are even nice enough to explain all the differences and offer recommendations based on group size and experience. After getting back from the trip I will say that I can HIGHLY recommend this company as your outfitter. Fast forward a few months and we’re all set. ROAD TRIP!
Hitting the road
There were 4-6 of us that were on board for the trip, and by a few weeks out that got whittled down to 4 due to work and things. I rented us a sweet van so that we had plenty of room for our stuff and to stretch out. I would be driving from Dallas up to Oklahoma City the night before we left, and then early the next morning we would drive from OKC to Moab, then start our canoe trip the following morning. OKC to Moab is a 900 mile 14 hour trip, quite a hoof to drive in a day but very doable switching out drivers.
Of course we didn’t hit the road as early as we wanted. There’s always at least one person that has one last minute errand that morning. As the saying goes, the best-laid plans… Thankfully it’s not a completely uneventful drive. Our country has a ton to offer when it comes to scenery or just odd things to see along the way. For instance, the Cadillac “monument” just outside of Amarillo.
On a drive from OKC to Los Angeles the year before my friend and I stopped at a casino just outside Albuquerque and had really good luck, so the group decided we should swing by there and we could grab dinner there as well. It was a good decision, I think we all won between $1-200 playing craps! We hit the road early evening to finish the 6 hours we had left, arriving in Moab some time around 2 am. We have to be at the outfitter by around 8:30, so ugh. Thankfully Moab is small and our hotel was 5 minutes down the street. We stayed at the Moab Rustic Inn. Perfect place to stay if you’re gonna be in town for a while as most of the rooms have kitchens I believe. For our purposes they had 2 king sized beds which we could definitely make do with. The owners were very nice to leave a key hidden in a box somewhere since we told them we’d be late.
We’re here, let’s f’n float!
We met at the office as instructed to finalize billing, paperwork, and get a briefing/walk-through of the trip. We had chosen the shorter of the two trips, which was the 47 mile float rather than the 66. There’s a lot of info they take from you, emergency contact info and your trip details being the most important. At some point during the planning phase we all decided it would be awesome to stop by and party in Denver the night we finished the trip, so we told them we were planning to do the 47 mile trip in 3 days. This was met with a combination of shock and a little laughter. Apparently we were pretty ambitious because most people finish in 4 days. Well you know what, we’re not normal people. We figured we get dropped in around noon on day one and as long as we started early we could average 15 miles a day and hit the 2pm pickup time 3 days later. Spoiler alert: We didn’t do it on purpose, but we canoed 47 miles in about 30 hours.
After the load up it was an hour and a half drive through the desert to get to the drop in point. As soon as we got both canoes into the water we realized a terrible mistake had been made. One of us…and he still gets hell for it to this day…left a small backpack in the back of the Bronco that dropped us off. In that backpack was about 2 liters of vodka and whiskey. Oh no! Especially since we had brought plenty of mixers along with our water. This meant not only would we not be able to enjoy a nice mid-afternoon Jack and Coke whilst floating, it also meant that when we set up camp we couldn’t drink around a campfire either. Like I said, we still give him hell to this day.
As I mentioned the outfitters thought we were a combination of ambitious or naive about how long it would take us to float the 47 miles. Mid June is still in high water season, and I guess the river was quite full at that time because it was running pretty fast. Not only that the water was high enough to drown out quite a few campsites. It wasn’t until about 7pm that we finally found a spot that was big enough for our stuff and wasn’t absolutely swarming with mosquitoes. I wish I had the GPS coordinates (best guess is 38°39’42.8″N 110°04’19.5″W) for the spot because it was a great place to set up camp, and had a big rock formation we could climb up to and on. After climbing down from it we realized how dangerous it was because it was not being supported by much at all.
The “Mozzies” are maddening
It’s impossible to sleep in camping so we decided we would get up super early and keep going. As beautiful as it was, the campsites that were flooded became very marshy so the mosquitoes were absolutely unbearable. At one point someone suggested that if we got to the finish point early enough that perhaps we could have the outfitter come get us and we could get to Denver that night. Brilliant idea, we were all on board.
There is a spot that is an absolute must stop. About 35 miles into the float there’s a big horseshoe in the river. Before you float across the whole thing you can pull over and climb up a rock path to the top. From there you can see both sides of the river and get some awesome pictures! I will warn you though the climb is not for the faint of heart. Some kind soul put together a really neat path to follow with little rock formations to let you know you’re going the right way, but it is still very steep and there are loose rocks. Once you hit the summit you also need to be very careful if you decide to play around up there.
The final push
We got back on the river and sure enough we hit the finish line at about 2pm. You’re still in a big canyon so there isn’t cell service for miles. There is however a ranger station that is supposed to be staffed from 8am to 4pm I believe. We were hoping that by getting there in time we could have the ranger radio in to our outfitter and have them come pick us up. As luck would have it the guy wasn’t there or left his post early. Bummer. At that point all we could do was to post up shop for the rest of the afternoon and hope that they could grab us earlier than 2 the next day.
The road out of the canyon is pretty wicked. It’s called the Horsethief Trail. It’s around a mile and a half long winding up the canyon to the top. It’s all dirt, one lane and incredibly steep. Just the drive out was an adventure in itself!
Labyrinth Canyon is one of those places in the United States that you just have to see if you have the opportunity. It looks like nothing else. The river snakes between never ending red rock cliffs and spires.
MOAB TOURISM INFO
RECOMMENDED RAFTING/CANOEING OUTFITTER
PERMIT AND PARK INFORMATION
RIVER WATER FLOW INFORMATION
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