Upper Animas 6-29-07 to 7-1-07

The Upper Animas is a classic river trip in the San Juan Mountains of southwestern Colorado. The trip is 26 miles and can be done in a day if needed. We had raft support and spent two nights on the river with a long middle day and a train shuttle at the end. This is a highly recommended way to run the river. Before the trip, I heard we were packing light. As it turns out, the rafters' version of "squalor"(sp) is pretty damn nice. We had about 1500cfs at Durango and 700 at Silverton. I thought twice as much would be good. The rafters said that a bit more would be ideal.

There is a low railroad bridge about a mile from the put-in that should be portaged by rafters who wish to avoid damaging their boats.



The view from our first campsite (taken from the seat of the groover).



Most of the action came on day two. The first "big rapid" is the Garfield Slide. It is neither a slide nor is it really that big (at this flow). Jen runs the slide:



Dave- same:



No Name is the biggest rapid on the river. It is a long, pushy, but straghtforward rapid with a nasty spot on the left at the bottom. No one in our group explored this spot. Jesse runs super smooth line through the crux on the Cat.



The paddle assist raft finishes up No Name almost as smoothly.



Night two- another of the many great campsites on this stretch.



We woke up early Sunday and caught the tourist train back to Silverton with time to spare (no Rockwood Box- maybe next time). This is a great river trip and I can't wait to go back. There are all kinds of options for this trip: from a long day trip, to self support kayaking, to several days on a raft with layovers. You really can't go wrong with any of them.