Utah is the home of several famous places once homesteaded by many robbers, rustlers, outlaws and bandits. Some names more common than others, all modern day ‘Robin Hoods’ competing with the rich to help give back to the poor.

Starting out with the most famous of them all was Robert LeRoy Packer, or better known as Butch Cassidy. Born in 1866, this Utah native was the first of twelve children in a devout Mormon family. He grew up working close to his mother and idol Mike Cassidy at a nearby ranch to help earn money for their struggling family. Packer quickly won the family’s approval as the youngest cowhand apprentice in his area. After spending a lot of time with Mike Cassidy out on his moonlight raids drinking old crow and learning the ways of a true cattle hustler, Packer changed his name to Butch Cassidy, after his profession as a butcher and to protect his family’s reputation.

Cassidy was a bold, good looking man who made a good impression. He was reckless, but smart, and he knew how far to push and when to back off. He liked people, ranchers, farmers and Indians, who in turn liked him a lot as well. He was part of many robberies in the areas of Brown’s Hole, Robber’s Roost, Hole-in-the-wall of Utah and Colorado and Hell’s Half Acre in Texas. His sidekicks also known as the Wild Bunch consisted of Harry Longabaugh (the Sundance Kid), Well Carver (Will Case), Ben Kilpatrick (the Tall Texan) and Harvey Logan (Kid Curry).  

In 1901 Cassidy sailed for South America to start fresh, yet came back to the United States around 1910-1913 in hopes of being forgotten. He settled in Spokane, Washington under a new name of William Phillips and is reported to have died in 1937.

On the opposite side of the spectrum was a hard working one of a kind woman named Elizabeth Bassett who was an impetuous, headstrong dreamer and doer. Orphaned at an early age, Bassett was brought up by her grandfather who raised racehorses, giving her a skill not many had. She was a good judge of horses, a talent that came in handy when she started breeding them on a ranch.

Bassett had a great deal of influence on Butch Cassidy and made the Bassett Ranch a safe haven for Butch Cassidy and the Wild Bunch. Two famous employees working at the ranch were Matt Rash and Isom Dart, both whom were part of the Bassett Gang and murdered by Tom Horn, a friend in the area of Brown’s Hole. Elizabeth became quite a rustler leading the way for her beautiful daughters Anne and Josie whom both were born to ride and shoot and borrow cattle if the notion took them.

Ann and Josie fought over Cassidy, throwing punches, kicking, biting and screaming at each other until sometimes one would draw blood.  In the end, Ann lost the battle and Josie and Butch Cassidy became an item for several years, but she knew that because of his lifestyle it would never work out. The two daughters were forced out of Browns Park after several mishaps with the law.

Etta Place is also one historically associated with the Wild Bunch. Best known as the love interest of the Sundance Kid, she was his paramour during the height of their criminal activity. It is strongly suggested that Etta Place was actually Ann Bassett. There is a lot of evidence supporting the disguise and the probability of this mystery.

Browns Park or “hole” seemed to be the resting and safe haven for the Wild Bunch and Bassett Gang. It is found in Western Colorado and the sign entering such a town read, “Browns Hole-Honest ranchers, outlaws, rustlers, gunmen, welcome! Sheriffs, marshals, deputies, busybodies, range detectives, cattle barons, enter at your own risk!”

The Hole was wintering home for many fur trappers and mountain men participating in the mountain men rendezvous. John Wesley Powell floated on the Green in 1869 and called the region Brown’s Park instead of Brown’s Hole. Today you can drive through and see some of the old cabins and homesteads of people from that area. The town may have lost a lot of its population, but the soul and memories still live on as the wind continues to blow through the open range.

Photo Source: Lamar, Howard R, ed. The New Encyclopedia of the American West. New Haven and London, Yale University Press.

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The pond is misty and full of huge green pads loaded with yellow flowers. The center of which contains swirls of orange and black. We hear an eagle over head. Ever so gently, we glide across the pond scanning the water’s edge and look into the woods for wildlife.

Suddenly we see a little red fox, it sees us and is not bothered, but instead begins to hunt for breakfast. It hops along the bank, over and across fallen trees. Then it pounces, catching a vole. As we continue to watch the fox, a great blue heron swoops down on the beach. The heron struts through the marshy edge, stretching its neck with each step and scanning the water, looking for fish. As we twirl through the lily pad pond in awe of our surroundings, our senses are aware of something large walking deep into the woods. Twigs snap and shadows dance while the sun shines light on Mount Moran. What will we see next?

As we slowly head for the inlet, a doe elk jumps out on the shoreline. It looks at us and runs back into the woods. More branches snap, it must be the elk making all the noise. Then a huge bark echoes across the pond causing the water to ripple and me to nearly fall out of the kayak. It’s no elk barking, but a black male bear letting us know it sees us. We float through the lily pads and wait a little longer, there’s no sign of an emerging black bear from the woods. It stays elusive, teasing us with its sounds but never showing its face. We paddle on, excited by the life we saw and those that hid from us.  Upon reaching camp, coffee awaits us and we get to share our morning adventure with our family and friends. Thank you lily pad pond for the magical moment.

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Idaho means, ‘the sun comes down from the mountains,’ originating from the Shoshone Indian phrase ‘Ee’ (coming down), ‘Dah’ sun/mountain, ‘How’ (acts as an exclamation point in the Shoshone language).  If you have spent a fortunate evening sitting riverside on a beach, watching the sun sink down over the dark rocky cliffs, or sipping a cup of coffee on that same beach in the morning as golden light brightens the mountainside, you understand what the Shoshone were trying to capture.

Idaho has over 3,000 river miles, more than any other state in the country.  It is also the 13th largest state in geographic area, but 39th in population.  Idaho contains Hells Canyon along the Snake River, which is the deepest gorge in America surging at a depth of 7,900 feet – 1,000 feet deeper than the Grand Canyon.  It also has the second deepest canyon – known as Impassable Canyon on the Middle Fork Salmon River.  With the Frank Church Wilderness, the most remote area in the lower 48, Idaho offers a true getaway from everyday life.

Now I am not a geologist, or even one of the better river guides at explaining the complicated formation of our great state’s topography.  However, I will attempt to present my first grade reading level explanation of how Idaho’s current landscape was formed.

Hundreds of millions of years ago, Idaho was actually resting on the western coast of the North American tectonic plate. As the oceanic Pacific plate collided with it, the heavier oceanic plate was crushed under the North American plate.  The subducting ocean plate plunged deeper into the earth’s core – becoming hot and molten.  As the rock melted it was pushed upwards, sometimes breaking through the earth’s crust in volcanoes, sometimes remaining just below the surface and cooling into new metamorphic rock.

At the same time the ocean plate was subducting, a chain of volcanic islands had migrated from the equator via other plate tectonic shifts and began shearing off the ocean plate and into the North American coastal plate.  As the North American plate continued to expand, new coastline arose and incorporated these islands, creating what we know today as Oregon and Washington.  There is now evidence of these tropical islands – exotic terrain – in corral reef fossils found in the Hell’s Canyon area and various other places around the Pacific Northwest.  The deeper hot spots of these islands continuingly traveled with the subducted oceanic plate further under the Pacific plate to create new volcanic areas such as: Mount St. Helens and the dynamic heat elements of Yellowstone.

Our river corridors contain many of these rudiments, varying from craggy, dramatic rock outcrops, to unique stair steps and geographic patterns of columnar basalt, to rolling terraces created by ancient glaciers and floods.  There are many beautiful and different environments along all of the rivers that O.A.R.S. runs – from desert red rock to tropical forests to arctic tundra.  Idaho is unique and worthy in its own, and very much worth seeing, even if you only read geology at the first grade level.

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by Ali McNabb

The first light of the rising sun creeps over the Eastern mountain range.  A silhouette of a moose swimming across the lake can be seen.  The water is so calm that it barely leaves a ripple.  A mating pair of Sandhill Cranes flies low on the horizon. Dawn is stirring.  

The sun casts orange rays of light through the clouds, creating a purple hue on Jackson Lake.  All is calm.  The air is moist and a chill breeze flows along the beach.  Silence is broken by the call of loons.  As the morning sun grows higher, Mount Moran becomes encased in its light and heat.  Steam rises from the creeks that gurgle in the forest creating a smoking effect up the mountain side.   An Osprey swirls above looking for breakfast.   The moon dips behind Tewinot peak as the sun fully crests over the Gros Ventres.  The fog rises higher over the lake until it dissipates.  A raven caws.  Dawn has arrived.

The fragility of morning reminds one that the simplest of moments are those that require nothing less then for one to rise.  To rise, wake and greet the light of dawn.  It is at this time of day where Mother Nature’s beauty is at its most simple and raw form.  The water and mountains are silent and peaceful.  Light dances with color casting shadows, teasing the eyes.  Creatures of nature begin to stir and forage for the new day. It is time to rise and reflect.  
 

One recalls the joys of yesterday as the final night star disappears.  Yesterday’s experience of paddling across the lake with an open view of the Teton Range is remembered fondly.  The afternoon swim in the bay is cherished for its cleansing powers.  The warm delicious meal eaten around the campfire creates a smile.  A night of endless stars will be kept in memory.  Dawn reminds one of yesterday and allows the imagination to dream about the day beginning.  
 

Rise and bask in the light of dawn.

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Idaho weather and water update for August 7th. Temperatures this week are a bit on the cooler side, but don’t expect the summer fun to cool down anytime soon! In Lewiston, prepare for highs in the upper eighties to upper nineties. Expect nighttime lows to reach the mid-to-low sixties. In Stanley, expect daytime highs in the mid-seventies to loweighties. Nighttime lows are expected to reach the upper forties. Finally, in Salmon expect daytime highs in the low-to-mid eighties and nighttime lows in the low fifties. There are fire impacts currently on the MF below Big Creek on river left moving slowly down river and likely to continue until it rains. So far not a big problem just some smoke when the breeze subsides. The fire status in general has been very small, and we are hoping to keep it that way.

The Middle Fork has dropped from the 2.40 feet spike last week to a much lower 2.07 feet today. So we are flying into Indian Creek while the crew deadheads from Boundary. The Main Salmon has continued dropping from 8,040 cfs to 6,760 cfs. As for the Snake, its flows have been fluctuating between 8k and 15k cfs.

So, trips continue to be huge fun, lots of folks coming off who are fired up to come back ASAP! Overall conditions are just great, not too crowded, good water and the fire impacts are minimal, so keep ‘em coming!

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He’s an Angels Camp local and is quite fond of the outdoor life in the foothills. Blanc works at Bear Valley Ski Resort in the winter and enjoys playing guitar and bass in his free time, and lives for the rush of never knowing what the next amazing experience will be or when it will come.

Click here to view the video version of this interview.

1.    What is it that makes California rafting so special?

I think because of the variety of rivers that you can get. I mean, you can get anything from San Francisco, you can run the Tuolumne Class IV or the South Fork a really mellow Class III, you can have multi-days, you can have waterfalls, you can have big rivers, steep rivers, you can have anything you want in California so I think variety is what makes California rafting so special.

2.    What is your most memorable guiding experience?

One of my most memorable experiences happened to me up on the Rogue River in Oregon, and it was a gentleman who has spent most of his life outside, had done first ascents of mountains, and had contributed to the outdoor society a lot. His body had turned on him, he wasn’t in the best of shape, he had Alzheimer’s, but we got to the bottom of Mule Creek Canyon and he looked up at Pinnacle Peak. If any of the guides had said you can go climb that mountain, he would’ve gotten out of the boat and climbed it. It’s really inspiring to see that on some river trips.

3.    We hear you were born and raised in Angels Camp. What keeps you coming back after all these years?

The reason I come back to Angels Camp is because I like the people around here. They’re very, very nice, calm headed, they’ve seen a lot of things, been a lot of places so the reason I come back is for the people. Otherwise, I’d probably live somewhere colder [laughs].

4.    What’s the trick to successfully surf a rapid?

The trick to successfully surfing a rapid starts with convincing your crew that it’s a good idea. After that, I think a successful surf is when everyone is still in the boat at the bottom and they say, ‘Wow, I didn’t know you could do that with a raft!’ so that’s how you successfully surf a rapid. You gotta go in slow, and make the river take over most of the work.

5.    We understand you love to play guitar and bass, which is your favorite and why? Do you have a favorite song to perform?

My favorite is bass, I love playing the low end, I love playing with other people, but I also like guitar. I like guitar because I can take it on the river every so often. As far as my favorite song to play and perform, it would probably be…JAMES [James Rodger, California/Oregon Regional Manager, jumps across screen]…anything I get to play with Eli Helvey. Eli is really the talented guitar player around so anytime I get to play with Eli that’s my favorite time to perform, so he plays, ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow,’ and I think that’s my favorite song to play because I get to play with Eli.

6.    What do you enjoy most about your work?

The thing I enjoy most about whitewater rafting is whitewater. I love the white water, I love the big rivers, I love seeing the different fluctuations of different flows – that’s my personal favorite, the river. I also love the big, epic scenery, the granger of it all, the tradition, actually putting the raft on the river and going rafting. 

7.    What can’t you leave home without?

The thing I can leave home without – and this is more recent – is this necklace right here [shows necklace]. This is a Moire symbol, which symbolizes safe passage through water. Guides are incredibly superstitious so without this I’m not sure I could keep my boat upright anymore [laughs].

8.    What do you do when you’re not busy being a river guide?

I generally like to go to the mountains, I really like to go up to Bear Valley – it’s a place I work at in the wintertime, get to ski around all winter and in the summer I can get up and go hike. It’s nice to get out of the heat a little bit, it’s hot being a river guide so sometimes going up to Bear Valley is a great solution for us, or mountain biking or skiing.

9.    We hear you love to read non-fiction, what is your favorite book and why?

My favorite nonfiction book is written by a guy named Lawrence Gonzales and it’s called, "Deep Survival," reason being because he goes over why people do what they do when they go under a little bit of stress, especially in the outdoors. I’ve found it very, very useful in my rafting career to be able to figure out what is going on in some people’s heads as we start to get into some bigger water. So that’s my favorite book, "Deep Survival," I recommend it; Amazon it.

10.    Describe your ideal river trip.

Anytime we go out and we have a great, great time – whenever we go out and everybody gets outside for maybe the first time, or maybe goes camping for the first time, or are surprised at how great camping can be for the first time. I think that’s something that creates an ideal river trip, beyond that you can be anywhere in the world and so long as that happens it’s a great thing. It also has to have good food, if it doesn’t have good food, count it out, so that’s why I guide for O.A.R.S.

Click the play button below to watch the video interview.

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On the bucket list of life’s goals, a river trip in a wooden boat through the Grand Canyon has to be a must.

BIG waves, small boats.

Dories are the smallest, most difficult and most fragile boats running the Canyon today. It is as close as you can get to Major John Wesley Powell’s first successful journey through the canyon in 1869.

Big and small rapids for adrenaline and sheer fun. Placid “lakes” with gentle drifting. Unpredictable currents, boils, surges, holes and eddies. Hikes into one of America’s last true wilderness areas. Shared days, 16 of them, and brilliant stars filling the night skies. Civilization was seeing a satellite crossing the starlit night.

One-hundred-degree days with 45-degree water soaking you repeatedly. Awesome. Towering cliffs with 15 varieties of sandstone, basalt, limestone and other rock. Big horn sheep, a condor, an eagle and visual overload in scenery, wildlife and plants. Jumbled rocks, steep cliffs, slot canyons, turquoise water at the Little Colorado and at Havasu Creek. Visual overload.

Rapids … more than 60 big ones, Lava Falls and Crystal rated 10. One boat overturned. No phone. No computer. No ATM. And no bathroom; everyone used the same facility because you leave nothing behind. All waste is carried out.

The adventure became a life experience, the group of strangers a family.

Sound like fun?

It was.

That’s the short answer. The longer one is that these days with Grand Canyon Dories is the ultimate river trip on North America’s ultimate adventure river.

Skyscraper rock formations, towering cliffs and unbelievable geology covering 1.7 billion years of the earth’s story. Vivid memories that won’t fade.

Jim Johnson taught geology at Mesa State College for more than 35 years. He was a special asset on the trip, although the Dories guides were solidly versed in the canyon geology and history. Jim was able to validate their information and add small pieces to the puzzle of how the canyon developed into one of the Seven Wonders of the World.



Grand Canyon Dories, with their small wooden boats set the Gold standard for all the canyon tour operators. In 40 years of taking folks down the 225 miles of river from Lee’s Ferry to Diamond Creek they have never lost a passenger. Nor any guides either.



Two guides live in Grand Junction. Others hail from Arizona, from Idaho, Oregon, California and other parts of Colorado. 



The Dories are 17-foot long “Briggs-style” wooden fishing rowboats, high prow and stern, one oarsman (or one oars-woman) in the center and only 4 passengers to the boat. Seating is two in front, two behind. 



The waves are astonishing. After the little boat slips down the tongue it disappears into foaming white water. 



Dramatic from a distance, it’s nearly paralyzing up close. The boats knife into the huge waves, the current lifting them up the wave until they are nearly vertical.

In the big rapids the wave towers another five to seven feet above, and it crashes down on the boat.

You get wet—very wet. Then the boat weighs 1,700 pounds more than when it’s dry, and is nearly unmanageable with the extra weight. You bail like crazy before the next batch of waves and rocks.

Amazingly, despite lots of directions on how to right the boat it if flips, and how to hang onto the boat as a big “life preserver” going through the rest of a rapid, only in fearsome Lava Falls did one of the little boats flip.

As a sample of high adventure, the story is this: Nick Grimes was oarsman (and group leader for the trip). He hit Lava exactly on target, to the right of the huge boil that would suck a boat to the bottom. Stabbing into a giant wave his luck was three seconds away, because the wave built even higher as he nosed into it.

Luck abandoned the near-vertical boat when one of the passengers lost his grip, plunged down into Nick and took him off his seat—and the oars. The boats are sensitive to weight changes. As water cascaded over the boat that passenger’s catastrophic weight shift nudged the boat a tad to the right. Sideways in a wave is not desirable.

It flipped.

Four passengers in life jackets were tossing through another seven or eight huge waves while Nick climbed onto the overturned boat, grabbed the flip line and shifted his weight off the side of the boat. It flopped back upright.

Nick climbed in, grabbed the oars, steadied the boat, and helped three of his passengers climb back in. The fourth got lost a bit trying to swim toward some elusive safety. He was picked up safely by Duffy Dale in the second boat.

No one drowned. No one lost anything. No one got hurt.

It was just another day at the office.

The Dories, brought to the Canyon years ago by legendary Martin Lytton, are today’s legacy of the Powell 1869 expedition. Major Powell started with four boats, nine men and food for 10 months. He wound p with two damaged boats, most of the food lost in rapids, and only five men after three months of exploration, fighting rapids, and wondering if they would survive their next rapid on their journey through the great unknown.

Powell’s maps, descriptions and geologic interpretations are amazingly accurate today. They were expanded with photographs and more detail by his second exploration in 1871-72.

Ultimately this led to the Grand Canyon becoming the premier National park in America, one of the true Seven Wonders of the World.

That legacy is honored and preserved by the Dories guides, true custodians of history and this great wilderness river.

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The most anticipated animal to see on the Green and Yampa Rivers through Dinosaur National Monument is the Desert Bighorn Sheep. Believed to have gone extinct in the region, for unknown reasons we find them flourishing back to reclaim their once dominated territory.

Bighorn Sheep are a vital resource because they provided food, clothing and tools to the natives of Utah both past and present. Due to the growth of the domestic sheep, bighorns began to die off resulting from a serious disease epidemic. Scientists were forced to believe that the Bighorn had completely been lost from Utah due to no sightings of them for several years. But in the 60’s, river rats began to see bighorns along the Colorado River system and its corridors. The current population in Utah is estimated at around 5,000 sheep, representing two genetic species—the desert bighorn and the Rocky Mountain bighorn. Mountain sheep are nearly twice the size of desert bighorn, and rams can weigh up to 300 pounds. Ewes of both species are about 40 percent smaller in size and weight.
 
Bighorns are amazing creatures. Floating downstream on the Green River, one may see a whole herd lightly prancing down the Cliffside without a worry in the world. One may ask, why are they so good on their feet? Their balance aiding split hooves with rough bottoms are the perfect natural Vibram sole. Imagine going to your local tire shop and checking out the most rugged off-road tire they sell. The reasons tires can handle so much wear and tear is because of the way they are designed to act when wrapped around sharp objects like rocks and trees. Some trail running and outdoor apparel companies are starting to use this design for their tread of the sole. It’s an amazing concept when you see it you understand why the bighorn can float across rugged obstacles with such grace and ease.

The horns of a ram (on the male) are always a site to see. The larger and more circular in shape they are, the older the age of the ram. If one sees a completed circle, it is said to be around 8 years of age. Females have horns, but they are much smaller and only grow up to a certain length.  A ram fighting for dominance with such horns is always an entertaining show; they will face each other, rear up on their hind legs, and hurl themselves at each other for hours until one submits and walks away. Luckily the animal’s thick, bony skull usually prevents serious injury. I’ve seen this often floating down the river, and it is quite a show and a great picture if you are close enough.

It’s common to see a large group together eating and drinking by the riverside. Rams will live with other rams, while females live in herds with other females and their young rams. Come fall, the groups will join forces to compete, mate and regain their hierarchy in the canyon. Then in winter, the bighorns move to lower elevation mountain pastures to gorge on grass, seeds and plants. Bighorns are like cows in that they regurgitate their food and chew it as cud before swallowing it for final digestion. The bighorn sheep’s only predator in our region is the mountain lion, and for small sheep, there have been sightings of golden eagles carrying them away.

If you stay at Jones Hole on the Green River through the Gates of Lodore, you may walk up a trail near Jones Creek, which will take you to the Deluge Shelter where you’ll find one of the most photographed pictures of a bighorn sheep in all of Dinosaur National Monument. Early Fremont culture (300-1600 A.D.) doodled along the Cliffside to leave behind messages and clues to the later inhabitants.

John Wesley Powell had several encounters of sheep documented in his journals while exploring the Green and Colorado Rivers. Echo Park, near the confluence of the Green and Yampa, got its name from the gunshots, which echoed through canyon walls in hopes of killing a few sheep to serve hungry men. Sheep Canyon near the closing of Cataract Canyon was also a place named after a large sighting of sheep that were found, shot and killed for consumption.

The great news is that the sheep are expanding their territories as well as population numbers throughout the west. This will give us more opportunities to see and enjoy their wonderful presence, so next time you find yourself floating down the river in the early morning or evening, keep your eyes peeled. It’s hard because they blend in so well, but very satisfying once spotted and always make for a good picture.

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LARS

We met him first in Lima.

He led this group of ours

To lodges and Casas Andina – That terrific tour guide, Lars.

He rowed the biggest of the boats,

Helped us camp beneath the stars.

His chin is like a billy goat’s – That able oarsman, Lars

His only vice is cigarettes.

I’m glad it’s not cigars.

He wears flip-flops no matter how rocky it gets – That intrepid trekker, Lars.

If you’ve painful blisters on your toe

And you fear you’ll be left with scars,

Relax, with moleskin he’s Michelangelo – That first-aid master, Lars.

He hiked us half-way up to heaven,

And rode us on railway cars,

Over and over counting up to eleven – That mathematical wizard, Lars.

Those rich desserts he never ate.

He owns no cookie jars.

But he’ll grab any meat right off your plate – That voracious carnivore, Lars.

For putting up with all our fuss,

And we know that we caused a great deal,

For making sure that three of us

Had veggies at every meal,

For sharing your deet and letting us spray,

Our unending praises are due you.

So this poem’s for you, Lars, and by the way,

A Happy Birthday to you.

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