The not-for-profit conservation organization American Rivers has just announced its 2012 list of the country’s most endangered rivers. Unfortunately, the historic and spectacular Green River, which flows through parts of Wyoming, Utah and Colorado, made the list.

What’s the threat?

There is a proposal under consideration to divert 250,000 acre-feet of water from the Green River across the state of Wyoming to fuel ever-expanding growth in Colorado’s Front Range communities. The plan, in effect, would be to build a 500-mile pipeline to funnel water to Denver and its suburbs.

And as if that weren’t enough of a threat, there’s also talk of a nuclear power plant being built near the town of Green River, which would suck up an estimated 53,000 acre-feet of Green River water each year to prevent a catastrophic meltdown.

Naturally, we’re biased in our opinion that the water should stay in the river. There’s no doubt we have a vested interest! After all, we’ve been guiding whitewater rafting trips on rivers of the American West for over 40 years and, along with our subsidiary Don Hatch River Expeditions, we’re the largest commercial outfitter on the Green River in Dinosaur National Monument. And at over 700 miles in length, the Green is the largest tributary of the Colorado River, which is the cornerstone of our organization. But these threats, of course, have more far reaching consequences than just our business interests.

Water shortages caused by these proposals could have a devastating effect on the robust recreation and tourism economies of the Colorado Plateau, as well as a potentially enormous negative impact on rural agriculture, native species and downstream water needs.

According to Trout Unlimited, which also opposes the pipeline project, the Flaming Gorge Reservoir and Green River above it contribute $118 million annually to the local economy. (That’s in addition to the estimated $4.3 million Green River whitewater rafting contributes to the economy.)

Why Is This River So Important To Paddlers?

The 4-day river trip that O.A.R.S. operates on the Green through the Gates of Lodore in Dinosaur National Monument is one of the world’s great introductory river trips.

The camping is on sandy beaches among scattered boulders, rustling willows, junipers and giant cottonwoods. Clear creeks–perfect for swimming–tumble out of shady side canyons and the wildlife abounds.

The whitewater is moderate and fun, even for kids as young as seven. The side hikes are rich with history, ancient and not-so-ancient.

The geology is some of the most fascinating on the planet. A billion years are captured in these canyon walls, along with the remnants of various life forms that existed long before humans.

The scenery features vertical yellow and red sandstone walls that tower as high as 1000 feet and tiger-striped walls alternate in blonde rock and black manganese oxide. It’s not uncommon to hear from people that they consider the Green River through Lodore Canyon to be every bit as spectacular as the Grand Canyon.

And on the final day of a Green River trip in Dinosaur National Monument, Split Mountain Canyon awaits. The Class III rapids are so much fun, we run that part as a single-day trip as well. And, if you ask me, it’s the most scenically spectacular one-day river trip in North America.

What Will Happen To The River?

The very water in the river is what’s at stake here.

A pump and a 500-mile pipeline threatens to divert water from the river to slake the thirst of an ever-growing population.

And when the water is drained from the Green, a classic American river could be forever altered. Critical fish habitat, home to endangered species and countless others, will be jeopardized. A sustainable economy built on recreation and tourism in this magnificent place could take a big hit. Rural agriculture and urban water use downstream could be severely impacted. One of the best rivers for first-timers–one we love to share with people again and again–could dry up.

What Can You Do?

O.A.R.S. has joined with American Rivers in opposition of the proposed pipeline.

We recognize the importance of preserving the Green River’s recreational opportunities and natural ecosystems and think you should too.

If you want to pitch in, if you love rivers and wild places like we do, then here are a few things you can do to help:

• First, visit the American Rivers website and complete the pre-formatted message to Utah’s Gov. Herbert.
• Then, share a photo or message on Facebook and Twitter. American Rivers has prepared some for you on that same page, so it just takes a couple clicks.
• If you’ve got a blog or website, there are banners and graphics that you can embed to help spread the word.

It only takes about 3 minutes. Less, even. Thanks for joining us in support of protection for one of America’s great natural treasures.

The post The Green River Makes The Most Endangered Rivers List appeared first on River Currents.

“That bar is made of Irish oak and it was in the Rosewood Bar in Wyoming, where Butch Cassidy and his Hole-in-the-Wall Gang, the Wild Bunch, hung out,” he said. “Cassidy had it shipped all the way from Ireland. We found it in a biker bar up in Thermopolis, Wyoming, covered in Formica and shag carpeting. So we bought it, had it restored, which took about 18 months, and then brought it down here.”

Could there be a more fitting owner of this relic of Western lore than the man who played the Sundance Kid to Paul Newman’s Butch Cassidy? It’s not only a great bar, but I can’t think of a better place to drink a Polygamy Porter and ponder what Redford had spoken of. The conversation piqued my interest in the real Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, their gang that was known as the Wild Bunch, and the legendary Outlaw Trail.

A Legend Begins

That poetic name started getting currency in the mid-19th century, when robbers and cattle rustlers borrowed — OK, let’s say stole — an idea from the Pony Express. They would leave fresh horses and the necessary supplies in hideaways and so-called outlaw ranches that were about 20 miles apart. It was an irregular trail of supply stations, veritable safe houses in today’s speak, that stretched for about a thousand miles, from Montana to Mexico. Hence the Outlaw Trail. The hideaways took advantage of the dramatic geology of the West, making full use of narrow canyons, high pastures and great open spaces that lawmen couldn’t possibly hope to cover.

The Outlaw Trail still exists, though much of it remains rugged, remote and hard to access. What’s left has been worn by time and nature, but once you get out there, you may come upon weather-beaten cabins that were hideouts on the trail. You can follow it yourself, or parts of it, through the mountains, plains and canyon-lands of Wyoming, Colorado and Utah. Even if you aren’t as fortunate as Redford in unearthing a piece of Americana like Butch Cassidy’s bar, you can catch the essence of the West.

Redford had followed the Outlaw Trail himself back in 1976 for National Geographic and wrote that, “As technology thrusts us relentlessly into the future, I find myself, perversely, more interested in the past. We seem to have lost something — something vital, something of individuality and passion. That may be why we tend to view the western outlaw, rightly or not, as a romantic figure.’”

Those words seem more fitting than ever in this age of Twitter and Facebook.

Butch Cassidy On The Trail

Butch Cassidy has always had the aura of outlaw-as-hero, often thought of as an Old West Robin Hood, who took umbrage at the idea that large cattle outfits were squeezing the smaller ranchers out of business and were therefore fit to be robbed. The Utah-born Cassidy — his real name was Robert LeRoy Parker — was one of the first to really utilize and eventually improve upon the Outlaw Trail. Known for his charm, his wit and his bravery, Cassidy’s first known crime was robbing the San Miguel Valley Bank in Telluride in 1889 with three others. They rode away with $20,000 and made their way to Brown’s Park, a mountain-ringed valley along the Green River that straddles the border of Colorado and Utah just south of the Wyoming line.

As early as the 1860’s, outlaws had been using this isolated bowl of grassland to pasture stolen horses and cattle and to hide out from the law. Cassidy and his gang traveled along the Green River before moving on to Vernal, Utah.

Brown’s Park begins in eastern Utah, about 25 miles downstream from Flaming Gorge Dam, and runs down into Colorado, ending at the Gates of Lodore in Dinosaur National Monument. Herb Bassett had built a ranch in Brown’s Park and had business dealings with Cassidy and the Wild Bunch. The Basset Ranch was the birthplace of his two daughters: Ann Bassett — known as Queen Ann Bassett — and Josie Bassett. Trained in riding, roping and shooting, but also provided with an education in boarding schools, the girls became outlaws, as well as girlfriends, to Butch Cassidy and other members of the Wild Bunch gang.

The “Wild Bunch” were so-named by saloon keepers in the town of Vernal, who knew a bunch of hell raisers when they saw them. This gang consisted of Harry Alonzo Longabaugh, known as the Sundance Kid; Harvey Logan, alias Kid Curry; Ben Kilpatrick, the Tall Texan; Harry Tracy, and Elzy Lays. The Wild Bunch are credited with the longest sequence of successful bank and train robberies in the history of the American West.

Exploring The Trail Today

Head to Vernal, where the Wild Bunch drank and raised hell, to start your exploration of the Outlaw Trail and the rugged terrain it passes through. Today, you can explore this country on an O.A.R.S. rafting trip that kicks off east of Vernal at Deerlodge Park, just over the Colorado border along the Yampa River.

The Yampa is the last undammed tributary of the Colorado River, and it looks pretty much like Butch Cassidy would have seen it 122 years ago. The walls of the Yampa Canyon rise 1,000 feet up and can be streaked yellow, red or the black “manganese oxide” known as “desert varnish.” The sandy beaches, the Native American ruins and the ancient petroglyphs found here haven’t changed since Cassidy’s time.

You’re in the heart of Dinosaur National Monument, arguably one of the richest, yet most overlooked corners of the West. The old cabins along the river are part of the trail. Of special note is Stubs Cabin, which was a homestead used by rustlers around the turn of the century. The most dramatic—in fact, you could say prehistoric—aspect of the river run is Echo Park, where the Yampa River converges with the Green before flowing into Utah. The waters wrap around an enormous butte surrounded by cliffs. It was discovered and named by John Wesley Powell in 1869 during his first expedition into the Colorado Plateau. It is one of the most profound vistas in the West and surely one of the most evocative places along the Outlaw Trail, a perfectly preserved bit of the wild country that the Wild Bunch operated in.

You can find other traces of Butch Cassidy and the Wild Bunch nearby, such as Desolation Canyon along the Green River, where Cassidy and the Sundance Kid hid out at the McPherson Ranch, which still stands. The John Jarvie Historic Property, now overseen by the Bureau of Land Management, sits alongside the Green River and is worth a visit. Jarvie was a Scottish immigrant with a beard of Biblical proportions who ran the valley’s store, post office and ferry crossing and he was well acquainted with Cassidy, the Sundance Kid and the Hole-in-the-Wall Gang. He was murdered by a pair of ne’er-do-wells in 1909, and now his stone house is a museum displaying some great Brown’s Park memorabilia.

You can also check out Crouse Canyon, which was regularly used by rustlers and outlaws riding between Brown’s Park and Vernal, Utah. You can explore nearby Diamond Mountain Plateau, a sparse benchland with remnants of log cabins and corrals. The area known as the Outlaw Pasture served as grazing land for livestock purloined by the Wild Bunch. Further afield, in southeastern Utah, is Robber’s Roost, a place where fresh horses were kept, along with a substantial cache of weapons. It was a labyrinth of canyons that offered a variety of lookout points, so it became one of Cassidy’s favorite places to lay low. Cassidy’s original corral remains in Robbers’ Roost, as does a stone chimney and the caves where they could hide out. The terrain and the extreme heat of the region are cited as the primary reasons that the law never was able to root out any outlaws from here.

In time, the Hole-In-The-Wall, in the Big Horn Mountains in northern Wyoming, would probably become the gang’s best known hideout, a natural geological formation which afforded the Wild Bunch much welcomed protection. The log cabin that had stood there has been preserved at the Old Trail Town Museum in Cody, Wyoming.

The End Of The Trail

Eventually, the long arm of the law began to stretch into the remote hidey holes of the Outlaw Trail. When the railroads hired the Pinkerton Agency to chase them down, Cassidy, Sundance and the latter’s girlfriend, Etta Place, fled to South America and bought a ranch in Argentina. After a couple of years, they went back to what they knew best—robbing banks—until the pair were trapped by troops in Bolivia after a payroll robbery and were killed.

Or were they? The legend persists that their deaths were faked and that they went underground again, with Cassidy heading to Europe and then back to his beloved Wild West.

Whatever might have happened, it’s remarkable indeed that a rafting trip into a remote corner of the American West can transport you back a century, to a place and a time when only outlaws traveled in these parts.

This essay was originally created for the 2012 O.A.R.S. catalog. For more compelling stories from other renowned writers, request your catalog copy today!

The post Butch Cassidy & The Outlaw Trail — History In River Rafting Country appeared first on River Currents.

We found our way through the National Park icons like Yellowstone and Yosemite and eventually made our way to Utah. To this day, Zion still holds a special place in my heart. And by the end of that 2-week road trip, I had fallen in love with Utah. But life takes you in many directions and eventually Utah, with its red rocks, meandering rivers and deep canyons, fell to the back of my mind.

Second Encounter

Fast forward a few years (too many to share) and I’m back, flying over the Colorado River in a six-seater Cessna, staring down at Canyonlands National Park and Cataract Canyon where I’ve just spent the last week exploring. I think I spot the entrance to Dark Canyon and make out what has to be Big Drop II. I see the Doll House to my left and the stretch of river that was bypassed when we hopped on land to hike the Loop. I’m smiling. I’m a Californian now, but I just fell in love with Utah all over again.

A week earlier I had arrived in Moab, a Mecca for all things outdoorsy, in the southeastern corner of the state. I came specifically for the rafting and hiking and hooked up with O.A.R.S., which promised both in one trip. I was excited about rafting 96 miles of the Colorado River and accessing remote trails along the way, typically hard to reach by any other means.

The trip began with our guides rowing the group, 23 of us all together, through peaceful Meander Canyon, rich with geological features that make you scratch your head in wonder. Early on we passed into Canyonlands National Park, but Cataract Canyon doesn’t officially start until 50 miles into the trip. Having already heard about some of the hikes that lay ahead, I was eager to get further down the river.

The Hikes

At lunch on the second day, we reached Lathrop Ruins, our first hike. A 15-minute jaunt through the bright green, weedy Tamarisk trees lead to Anasazi ruins, including pictographs and an abandoned granary, which an ancient community created to store their surplus of crops and grains.

Day three began with the Loop hike, an approximately one-mile, moderate trail that goes straight up about 500 feet with great views at the top, then straight down with some tricky foot maneuvering. While we hiked, the boats kept rowing to pick us up on the other side. We bypassed four miles of the river, but it was well worth it for the chance to peer down into the layered canyon walls we were living among for the week.

We then headed off to the confluence of the Colorado and Green Rivers where you reach a sign-in box for groups to write-in the various camps they’ll be staying at throughout the trip. Sign-up is voluntary, but also an unspoken rule of the river. We all had our fingers crossed for plan A and were thrilled when the guides came back and shouted, “Winning!” — our motto for the rest of the trip. We were now set up perfectly to hike the Doll House, as well as Dark Canyon.

Day four was going to be epic. Not only were we hiking the six-mile Doll House trail into the remote Maze District of Canyonlands, we were also running a good chunk of the trip’s Class III-IV rapids.

About half of us woke up early to beat the heat and take on the grueling 1,300-foot ascent that takes you to the playful rock formations that make up the Doll House. After a 45-minute Stairmaster climb you get to the top, and are rewarded with an awe-inspiring, 360-degree panoramic view. In one direction sits the colorful spires of the Needles and Island in the Sky Districts of Canyonlands. There’s an Anasazi granary to discover, and an area called the Refrigerator that offers a slot canyon experience with relief from the heat. 

The Whitewater

We could have spent the entire day up there, but after an hour of exploring we had to get back for lunch and gear up for the rapids ahead, including some big plunges, literally called Big Drop I, II and III.

The following day brought more rapids, which I took on in a ducky after successfully kayaking the first day’s rapids. Lower Imperial got the best of me and my paddle partner and we took our first official “swim.” Luckily, we made it through laughing and unscathed. But I wasn’t as excited about the rapids on day five as I was about Dark Canyon, a hike that hasn’t been accessible for at least eight years due to low water levels and impassable debris.

On a perfect day Dark Canyon offers approximately two miles (or more if you’re adventurous) of hiking and bouldering between its steep, narrow red walls alongside a pristine stream. When we arrived to clay-red water it was obvious a flash flood had come through the day before. Nonetheless, we took advantage of the many swim holes, waterfalls and prime cliff jumping spots that are hidden away in this remote paradise. It was a magic moment to be wandering among canyon walls that glowed like a flame and towered 3,000 feet above you. The wait had been worth it.

As we pulled up to the boat take out the next day a sadness came over me like I was saying good bye to an old friend. Planes arrived to take us out of the canyon and, as we flew over the Colorado River back to Moab, I couldn’t help but think about all the people out there who haven’t gotten a chance to see any of this yet— to fall in love with Utah.

This essay was originally created for the 2012 O.A.R.S. catalog. For more compelling stories from other renowned writers, request your catalog copy today!

The post Falling For Utah, Hiking & Rafting Canyonlands’ Backcountry appeared first on River Currents.