During the first week of June, in 2023, we drove ourselves to Vernal, Utah, loaded ourselves into a van with a few other brave souls, and, with the watchful guidance of an amazing team from Oars, we dropped into the raging Yampa River.
Like rafting the Main Salmon many years ago, this river adventure changed our world, blew our minds, healed our souls. We cried when we were done - on the way back - at the fleeting bigness of the spring runoff, the overwhelm of having to return to our busy, real lives, and at having to say goodbye to the wild, quiet, unique, beauty of the canyon.
I cried, too, knowing that our years together as a family were as fleeting as the winter snow, the spring runoff, the canyon rainbow. And this....this trip was something so special, so important. We were all struggling, fighting to write each and every second into our memories. Don't forget! This feeling, this togetherness, this version of us! Take it with you. Make you better.
The Yampa, like all rivers, is dangerous and boring, threatening and welcoming, a connector and a destroyer. A rhythmical beast that transported us from the chaos of civilization to the simplicity of survival. Mostly, it is life, it provides, it nourishes, it carves and creates. Spending time with those countless connected molecules helps us understand our place in this big, beautiful, welcoming home that we call Earth.
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| The Beginning |
We spent five glorious days in the park, in the canyon, and especially on the river. The first days were wet and rainy, adding dimensions and color to the landscape. We wore wetsuits on day two.
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| No rain, no rainbows. |
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| view over morning coffee |
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| Day 3 Domes |
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| Kenedy got to row the boat. |
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| Learning about ancient homes. |
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| Kiss the Tiger Wall |
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| Quiet and Echos. Yampa please meet Green. |
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| What? These are special feet. |
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| more feet |
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| I get by with a little help from my friends. |
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| photo credit: Kenedy |
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| What views?! |
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| we feel good, we look good! |
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| Ride or Die |
The river was big - almost 20,000 cfs...which made some of the scary rapids fun and some of the fun rapids dangerous. Warm springs was huge - still type 2 fun, thankfully. Wave trains through split mountain were everything you could ever want from a whitewater paddle. Oh how I wish we could do it all again.
