Silt Kayaking — Monsoon season comes to the Colorado Plateau
The water was milk chocolate brown, with a slippery texture that required an extra tight grip on the paddle. Close your eyes when splashed or you'd feel the grit in [...]
Elwha River Source to Sea Packraft
Sinuous vertical walls reflected the Elwha's emerald green water. Dramatic and beautiful, yes, but unsettling. Weren't we supposed to be done with the gorges? My research—intentionally incomplete (isn't the mystery [...]
Gros Ventre kayaking with women of whitewater
We gathered in an eddy, craning necks toward the whitewater below. The run was billed as a float trip, but the splashy river before us was class III or IV—we [...]
South Fork Trinity—California’s longest un-dammed river
The longest continuous ridgeline in the lower 48 is a forested escarpment in far northern California called South Fork Mountain. The longest undammed river in California is the South [...]
Verde Source to Mouth—Below the Dams
I was dropped at a vacant beach below Horseshoe Dam. My companions rolled away toward the mad, overcrowded world beyond the hills while I slid into a clear, cold river. [...]
Verde Source to Mouth—Wilderness
Getting from Camp Verde to Beasley Flats was a slog. A large part of the problem was the beer barge I'd created out of a once svelte backcountry craft. With [...]
Arizona Paddling 2026—Who says you can never go back?
A chilly take-out in '98 Twenty-eight years ago, my wife Lisa and I completed the first descent of West Clear Creek with the late Josh Lowry. Josh wore a wetsuit [...]
Klamath Renewed – To the Sea
Most great rivers reach a place on their journeys where culture and geography connect; creating a place of tangible power imbued with human reverence, and signaling a clear transition in [...]
Klamath Renewed—Into the Mountains
The old hatchery below Iron Gate Dam was quiet, as was the river bank that was once crowded with anglers. With no dam to gather migrating fish at the end [...]
Klamath Renewed – Drained Reservoirs and Returned Rapids
Below the whitewater of Hells Corner, the Klamath placidly enters farm country. For the past 107 years, it then entered Copco Reservoir. No more; we noticed our arrival at the [...]
