Ruby-Horsethief Canyons, Crestone Charter School

Boats, teachers or parents, and middle school students of the Crestone Charter School floating Horsethief and Ruby Canyons on the Colorado River, May 15-17, 2006. (The trip is generally referred to as "Ruby-Horsethief" even though this names the canyons in the wrong order.)

I helped this trip by rowing my own raft as a supply boat. Four other boats were paddled by the students, each with an adult as captain. Two had extensive experience as river guides.

The weather was like summer! I've done cold May river trips in wind and rain. In fact, I'd sworn off doing river trips in May. But this one couldn't have been any better.

The river was rising slowly, getting ready to carry some serious snowmelt down! We started on 11,000 cubic feet per second (cfs) and ended at 14,400 cfs. That's around still-low to medium water on this part of the Colorodo.

Our trip went from Fruita, west of Grand Junction, to the Westwater BLM site which is just across the Utah border. There is only a little whitewater on this trip. Closest would be where the river pours through a narrow defile in the "Black Rocks."