|
At the warehouse we piled into 3 vans towing the rafts, bags and equipment and headed to Deer Lodge Park for the put-in. The drive was about an hour or so. The 2 Denver ladies had arrived at 10 pm Tuesday evening and they rode in our van and we filled them in on what they had missed. Dee Holladay, owner of the raft company, was our driver. Kelly, one of the guides, rode shotgun. As we approached the put-in, we were given several pages to read, detailing the
“do’s and don’ts”
|
of rafting and riverbank living.
When we arrived at Deer Lodge Park, the guides unloaded the vans and we assembled, out of the wind with the naturalists, for the first of our `classroom’ presentations - Emmett gave us a superb handout outlining the geologic stratigraphic sequence we would travel through and a geologic time scale; Jeff unveiled the first of his many reptilian friends, a garter snake; Ed outlined the fish we would hopefully encounter; and Mike gave us an overview of the vegetation zones along the river. Laura would talk to us later that evening as the bats came out. |
 |
 |
Fitted with our personal life jackets, we piled into the rafts. Doug and I rode with John, a rookie boatman. Audrey, the owner of Cloud Ridge Naturalists, and another guest rode in the front and we rode in the back. The day was overcast, cold, windy and raw. We had 24 miles to go. There was no way we would stay warm and dry. Thank goodness we had purchased, at the last minute, neoprene socks for the raft and wool socks for land.
|
|
Geologically, we started out in the Glen Canyon and Entrada sandstones and, as we entered the Yampa Canyon, we encountered Weber sandstone, which dominated most of the trip. After a mile of travel in Yampa Canyon, we had our first view of the Morgan formation, alternating layers of limestone, siltstone, mudstone and sandstone, pushed up from the river shortly before lunch.
|
 |
 |
 |
