San Juan in July: 100 degrees, carnage on 8 Foot

When I was first invited to float the upper San Juan River (put in at Bluff, UT; take out at Mexican Hat) in July, my second thought (after an initial, “yes, of course I would love to”) was, can I handle that kind of heat? Predictions were 100 degree weather.

I decided to go ahead and commit. After all, I had weathered a freezing cold float on the same stretch Thanksgiving weekend last year. On this particular aspect of the trip, the experiential duality between the two floats began to appeal to me.

Still, I floated the idea of purchasing a Bimini top for the raft. After researching various
options, Jon instead decided to create two umbrella holders out of pvc pipe. It worked *beautifully*. While still very hot, the shade made for a wonderful float.

This was my fourth trip on the upper San Juan river. It’s a beautiful place, with rugged and inspiring geology, abundant wildlife, and a congenial river community.

On this trip we saw geese families with almost full grown goslings. Back in early April we witnessed droves of geese pairs incubating their eggs. In late April we saw baby hatchlings being herded around.

There was a multitude of bighorn sheep, more than I’ve seen before. Long necked cranes, ravens and turkey buzzards. And really long, fat lizards.

By most accounts, the San Juan is a mellow float. On the upper portion, the biggest rapid is a class two: Eight foot. The big surprise of the trip: signs of carnage on eight foot. Hearsay on the river was that a boy scout troop of 12 lost their swagger in the rapid.

See below for video for our run through 8 foot, the carnage, and other photographs and film from our float.