Green River Part 3: Sand Wash Farewell

I woke up early and snapped a few pictures of the sun rising over the bluff on the opposite bank. What began as a faint yellow glow just grew brighter. The simplicity of it amazed me. Dennis the park ranger gave us the final talk, explaining the rules and their reasons to us as we packed. He told us to say hello to Alan Jackson at Mineral Bottom. We finished packing and then he wished us well as we pulled away from the beach.

Since we had decided to have nine continuous days of paddling, we set a goal of sixteen miles per day. I had staked out approximate campsites between Sand Wash and the official takeout below Swayseys rapid. Sixteen miles per day mean we would not see whitewater on our first day. I started in the kayak and Lucas started in the raft, complete with vacation shirt and hat. Later we swapped places, but he kept the vacation shirt and hat. The water was moving around four miles per hour and random whirlpools would form every few minutes. The speed of the water and the width of the river made cross-river ferries quite difficult, especially in the raft. We started thinking about lunch and found an ok spot to stop, unless you asked Kerry after she fell into the river, but Mark missed us taking an obvious channel. Since he had lunch, we had to catch back up to him. Then Kerry went ahead to find another spot. I was in the raft now and I blew the ferry to get over to her. Instead, we tied the rafts together and ate lunch while drifting lazily down the river. We paddled for a little while longer, passing several other groups. One group at a campsite made us think that it was about time for us to find our camp for the night. We found pair of little tunnels in the tamarisk that led to a medium to large-sized group campsite. Looked like home to us.

Mark got out his treat for the group that night: miniature air horns that were just as loud as their larger counterparts. We used those to harass the passing boaters. Lucas and I explored the site a little, finding our way out to the big rock that we saw about a hundred yards above the entrance to our campsite. We enjoyed grilled steak and shrimp, potatoes and vegetables for dinner. The bugs grew more vicious as night approached, but a quick scramble up the rocky hillside made for an easy escape. While Lucas was hiding the garbage, he noticed wild mustangs grazing in the grasslands across the river. I scrambled up to join him, using the stalker lens on the camera to take a closer picture.

In that part of the world in that particular season, sunrise arrives pretty close to 9pm. We were in the tents ready for sleep while it was still light out. Whitewater would greet us sometime the next day and all of us were excited to see what it would be like.