Rio Chama

We first floated this Upper Chama Canyon in early May, 1973 @ about 5000 cfs. Six of us were in two rafts. I was rowing a 16' Campways Hypalon with 9' oars. Three friends were paddling a ten-foot, 6-man, surplus raft. The 6 man raft flipped in the biggest rapid mid-way in the canyon. A young man abandon the party and climbed out of the canyon, muttering the words, 'mama, mama, mama' .....thus the name Mama Rapid was dubbed. We were all in our late teens/early twenties.
Upper Chama Canyon is little known and thus rarely floated. It is a beauty. Aspen Trees are riverside in the upper reaches and thick dark forests of Douglas Fir fill the canyon's north facing slopes. Towering old-growth Ponderosas grace the river banks.
We rarely miss a year floating this wonderful Upper Chama Canyon. Most often we set in at Willow Creek Campground and take out at The Upper El Vado Launch Ramp. Our favorite craft in the past decade or two is open canoes, generally waiting until the flow subsides top 900 cfs or lower. 200 cfs is actually our favorite flow-level.

Reported 5/5/15 by Barry Weinstock -

I’ve meant to head out to this section of the Rio Chama for a long time. We went out a few days ago and this is a beautiful section of river and we had a very nice day. This section has a short runnable window each year, after which it diminishes to pools separated by cobble bars. For most of this section there are occasional wire fences rolled up on the bank. These are stretched across the river bed at low flow times.

A couple of miles downstream of the Highway 95 put in there is a gravel pit on river left. After the pit, there is a house on river left. Next to the house we encountered a fence that had not been taken down. The water was at 3.8 feet (~1,100 cfs) and two strands of barbed wire were ~10 and 14 inches from the surface above swift current. Fortunately, my buddy has better eyesight than me and we were able to pull over. There are eddies on either side of the river. On the right side, we passed our inflatable over a locked farm gate. The left side is barbed wire.

Wonderful section -- glad we did it and will do it again. Keep your eyes peeled.