Upper Taos Box

The Upper Taos Box is a run that I never really planned to do. It has a well deserved reputation for being full of dangerous seives. It also has some fun rapids and is set in an amazing canyon. Despite its reputation, given the chance to do a new run with a solid group (Josh Heise and Donnie Smith), I decided it was worth the drive. None of us had done this run before, so we scouted extensively so as not to end up under rocks. Suffice it to say that on a run like this on a rainy day, we had the river to ourselves.

The first rapid is NCO. At our water level (550 cfs) this rapid looked terrible. The majority of the river seives out, but I think a good right line would open up with more water. Luckily, the next major rapid, Hell Hole, looked much better with a good boof, and only minor seive issues. My boof:

At the end of a longer section of boogie water, we came to pleasure plunge.

More boogie water leads to Big Arsenic (which needed more water), but the run does not let up with Little Arsenic and Little Arsenic Jr., which are more spread out and have some places you do not want to explore. We did the long paddle out to Dunn Bridge, which really was not that bad (9 miles of easy water with current and great scenery). The hike would probably save some time.

We had 550 cfs, which seemed low. The book gives a 300 cfs minimum , but I would not make the trip under 500 cfs. I think 800-1000 would significantly clean up the rapids. This run is worth doing, but is not a place to be out of control or swimming. There are dangerous seives in every major rapid and everywhere in between. I'll definitely be back. Hopefully with a bit more water.