On our trip, recent rains had made the water an opaque, milk chocolate soup shaded by towering Precambrian walls of the inner canyon. Westwater Canyon starts out very gentle and wide but becomes a narrow canyon, where the Colorado river rushes through with violent rapids from river rocks and steep cliffs on both sides. Once you enter the canyon, you are committed.
We made it through Funnel Falls and then entered Skull Rapid on a wave train. Skull Rapid has a large hole where all of the water converges. The rafters in this video cleared the hole that we went into sideways and flipped in.
I ended up underneath the boat, and due to the strong current, headed straight for the sheer canyon wall after finding my way to the surface. As I understand from our companions, I nearly ended up in the "room." According to American Whitewater, the "Room of Doom" in Westwater Canyon is "formed where a rock point protrudes out into the main current. Most of the flow continues downstream to the left but a significant portion heads right into a rock alcove with a powerful recirculating current that prevents boats from accessing the main current.... There have been cases where groups have actually had to dismantle their raft and portage up over the cliff."
The current slammed me into the wall and a pillow sucked me underneath the water again. When I came back up I saw Jeff hanging onto the boat and swam to it. We both had hold of the boat and continued floating downstream until we saw another group of rafters on shore holding out paddle handles. I was so grateful to see them. We had floated toward the edge where they were standing. They were there because 4 crew members fell out of their raft though they did not flip.
After recovering and righting our boat, we had no choice but to continue on downstream. Our boat was tossed around again in Sock-it-to-me Rapid, which is just after Skull. I was pretty much freaking out at this point so I insisted on walking around Last Chance Rapid. I came to realize, however, that this wasn't a good idea. The rock walls are so sheer, there are few places to access the river. I was fortunate to find a small spot to climb down - otherwise, I would have had to jump back into the river from a high point on the rocks. We made it through and camped at Big Horn campsite.
The second day was mostly flat water, but the wind was howling!
It was nearly impossible to row downstream because the winds were pushing us upstream. It took quite a bit of time and rowing power just to make it to Cisco. There were a few breaks where we were able to check out the rock formations many of which had swallow nests clinging to the sides.
Next, we would be heading to the Gates of Lodore in Dinosaur National Monument to row down the Green River.
