Colorado

We enjoyed this as a 6 day trip from the Potash Boat Ramp down to North Wash Boat Ramp. Flows through Cataract Canyon were approximately 5000 cfs. The first 3 days were on Meander Canyon of the Colorado with some motor assistance. We spent the third night at Lower Red Lake on river left and paddled Brown Betty (aka Rapid 1) the next morning to a beach on river right that provided a good staging area for the hike up to the Doll House. After lunch at the Doll House on day 4 we ran rapids 2-9 in the afternoon, set up camp at Upper X/Y Canyon R, and enjoyed fun kayak surfing in the evening at Rapid 10. On day 5 we enjoyed rapids 10 through Gypsum Canyon Rapid, that last exposed rapid at the reservoir elevation we experienced, and then continued paddling on down to Below Clearwater R Camp. Our lunch stop that day was at the top of Big Drop 3 on river right. Rafts ran the left line but kayakers found several options in Big Drop 3 with some running lines on the right and others running lines on the left. At 5000 cfs, it's the one drop I would consider class IV with the majority of the other rapids being class III. The reservoir was at approximately 3545 (155' below full pool of 3700') and the whitewater continued all the way down to Gypsum Canyon Rapid. On day 6 we motored the approximately 23 miles from Clearwater Canyon to North Wash Boat Ramp over a period of 4 hours arriving in the early afternoon. We had current flowing at the makeshift boat ramp just downstream of the Dirty Devil confluence on river right; it was a steep climb up to the parking area.