Dirty Devil
01. Hanksville to Hite
| Difficulty | I |
| Length | 84.2 mi |
| Avg Gradient | 9 fpm |
| Gauge | Dirty Devil R Ab Poison Sp Wsh Nr Hanksville Ut |
| Flow Rate as of 50 minutes | 65 cfsbelow recommended |
| Reach Info Last Updated | May 24, 2023 |
The Dirty Devil offers a wilderness float trip with incomparable scenery and side canyon hikes. Floatable flows occur in the late winter through early spring (mid Feb - mid March) and during late summer thunderstorms.
Fremont River and Muddy Creek join together at Hanksville to become the Dirty Devil. Most of the dirt seems to come from Muddy Creek. Most of the water is taken out for agriculture and domestic use before it reaches the confluence and put in. Flows at the start will be almost always very low. Side streams below the put in will gradually add water and make floating easier as boaters proceed downstream.
Standard Put in:
Somewhere near the confluence. AW does not have good information about upstream put in options. Study the map and ask around when you arrive. Elevation is approximately 4240 feet above sea level.
Standard Take Out:
While Lake Powell is low, there is a river runners take out on the north side of the lake, just downstream of the Dirty Devil confluence. There appears to be plenty of parking. Boaters coming out of Cataract Canyon sometimes end their trips and derig at this take out, so it could be busy. Hite Marina proper is on the south side of the river/ lake. Elevation is approximately 3600 feet above sea level.
Character:
Especially near the beginning, the river is wide, shallow and braided. Expect lots of boat dragging unless you get good flows. Boats with very shallow draft are most suitable, but canoes, inflatable kayaks, inflatable canoes and recreational kayaks have all been used. The canyon is also very wide in the beginning, but it gradually becomes narrow. Near the end, the river cuts down through Lake Powell silt. The channel can be very narrow with swift water. The overall gradient is about 8.5 feet per mile.
Packrafting:
The Dirty Devil offers numerous packrafting options
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A 4-wheel drive road extends from Highway 95 to the Dirty Devil on the upstream side of Dry Valley Wash. This alternate put in can reduce the amount of boat dragging one has to do.
A 4 wheel drive road comes down Poison Springs Wash all the way to the Dirty Devil, fords the river and continues on the other side. The USGS gage is just upstream and is serviced by the road.
Mar 25, 2025
130 CFS and we walked what I thought was too often. We put in 5 miles above poision springs road by happy canyon with pack rafts and ended up bailing from the poision springs road due to it being so slow, walking and boat abuse.
I would not run this unless there was atleast 200 CFS. at 130 there were many sections of ankle deep water.
it was pretty, but not advised below 200 IMO
Mar 21, 2025
*There is a riverwide barbed wire fence around robbers roost as of 3/14/25, it is visible and easy enough to slip under, but could be an issue to an unsuspecting group with more water*
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We launched from lower sand slide on 3/14/25 and made it to the north wash boat ramp on 3/19/25 with flows averaging around 120cfs.
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The put in from lower sand slide is 1/2 mile with 500 feet of elevation down a sand dune with short sections of slickrock and cuts off the first 7ish miles of river. If I had a packraft and a willingness to go lightweight I would just hike down at angel cove, but we were in duckies and were willing to carry all our heavy gear down the hill. There is an obvious trailhead here and while the road looks like it could go further, I am not sure it was even open and I was not willing to take my tacoma down it.
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With heavy duckies we were out of the boats pretty much constantly, pushing/dragging the boats to the banks where you'd often find the deeper channel until it would get braided and you'd need to do it again. If you are not mentally prepared for this then stay away, but if you turn it into a game and realize that slow pace means you get more time to enjoy the scenery then it's not too bad. Just think of it more as a water assisted backpacking trip. The river starts to channelize more below twin corral canyon, but there are still plenty of wide sections that you will need to hop out and drag.
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6 days is basically the absolute minimum amout of time I would recomend for a full length trip at these flows, most of the trip you are averaging about 2.5 mph and given the shallow nature you can't really push the pace by paddling more often since you'll just beach yourself on a sandbar.
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The real joy of this river is all the side canyon hikes to explore. Do not miss twin corral, happy, or fiddler cove, all worth camping at and exploring.
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I'd recommend taking out at the end of an old nondescript road along the west side of the river a few miles upstream of the bridge on SR-95, don't know the status of this road but there are carins visible from the river that mark it. While this portion of the river is fully channelized the receeding reservoir has left behind miles of tall, difficult to scale silt banks that have collected tamerisk and made camping in this stretch much more difficult. I am glad to have ran the river to the confluence, but this is the take out I would use in the future.
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The muddy chutes at the end are a roller coaster. While not too difficult, (I'd say class II+/III) they are too narrow to effectively paddle so your main goal is to keep everything pointed so you don't wedge the nose of your boat into the bank and get caught sideways.
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Cyoa on water, we chose to use water wizard to settle, aquamira to shock, and then ran everything through a katadyn filter and the water looked perfectly clear at that point, tasted fine, and we did not get sick, your mileage may vary and a few 5 gallon buckets helps with this process.
