We decided to take our new Alpacka Explorer 42 raft out on its maiden voyage by attempting a “day” trip in the Needles. We camped at Hamburger Rock in Indian Creek and got an early start. We only had a very rough idea of what the route would be, and we vastly underestimated how hard it would be to climb up from the river bank.

Overview of the route.

Needles Packrafting Day Trip GPX – Here is a GPX file with some waypoints for the trip.

To download the GPX file, click that link then click the download button in the top right.

So a couple of notes: in order to packraft without a river permit (and to have a permit you need a fire pan and a groover, which not many packrafters will want to carry) in Canyonlands National Park, you have to follow some regulations. You have to do less than two miles on the river, and you can’t go below the confluence of the Green River and the Colorado River. To comply with these regulations we exited the river about a mile before the actual place we needed to climb up, then hiked on the river bank to get to where we wanted to go.

Make sure you start as early as possible, and you are comfortable with some exposed scrambling. It is a really, really long day.

Starting out in Big Spring Canyon.

Getting lower.

Webbing to help down a slippery section.

Another fixed webbing hand line, this time a bit more necessary. This would be a scary down climb without it. There were two bolts and two old pitons.

Paddling out of the end of Big Spring Canyon, it was flooded and we were able to paddle out the last quarter mile.

On the river!

Exiting the river into the tamarisk/willow jungle.

More detail on the ascent. This is just after the confluence.

Looking back at the confluence of the Green and Colorado Rivers.

The Needles.