SA Report: More things in heaven and earth - Day Four
Trip date: 9/4/2016
Location: Labyrinth Canyon, Bureau of Land Management
Launch: Ruby Ranch - private, donation required - $5 per person, $10 per boat
Land: Mineral Bottom (47 miles downriver) - Arrangement must be made either to have a shuttle service (there are quite a few operating out of Moab) pick you (and your boats if necessary) up here at the end of the trip, or to leave your own vehicle. Outfitter offer all sorts of options, the obvious of which is to have them drop you off at the launch, and pick you back up at the landing. It's a 39.5 mile trip back to Moab from the take-out, and traveling the precipitous, narrow, rough road is going to take over an hour.
Permit/Pass: Permits must be obtained through your outfitter (or here, from the BLM) in order to paddle this section of the Green River.
Inspections: All vessels, including kayaks, entering Utah on Interstate 15 must go through inspection for quagga mussels.
Directions: From the town of Moab, take US 191 north for about 30 miles to Interstate 70. Head west on I-70 for approximately 7 miles to exit 175. Drive south on increasingly rough and rutted BLM 147 for about 14 miles to where it turns into Ruby Ranch Road. Continue, after dropping money into the donation box, for another mile or so to the launch area on the riverbank.
Synopsis: From a mile 54 campsite, this is a leisurely float of the last two miles of the canyon and a chance to sit back and appreciate once again the monolithic beauty of the red cliffs.
Portage: None along this stretch (river was at fairly low water)
Type: Point to point
Distance: 2 miles
Rating: Easy (factors: heat, water level and flow)
Notes: As you paddle the last mile toward the take-out, you begin to search for evidence of the proper landing site. At the bend up ahead, on the walls above the bank there is some whitish streaking on the rocks. Just below here you will eventually note the bare, sandy bank where boats are launched and landed. If you're lucky there will be boats already there, making the destination obvious.
Track: Mile 54 to Mineral Bottom - Canyonlands NP: AllTrails, GaiaGPS
Navigation:
-- Leave the sandbar and head south toward the cliffs. As the river bends back toward the southeast you begin your last mile of paddling Labyrinth Canyon.
-- Directly ahead the mile bends sharply back to the west. At that bend the paddler will eventually see a large, open spot in the trees and brush which is the take-out. If the current is strong, approach from river left in the more sedate shallows just upriver of the landing.
Photos: Flickr
Video: Youtube