Cataract Canyon...Now with New Rapids!

September’s record breaking rains and the shrinking of Lake Powell have combined to form some new rapids in Cataract Canyon. For about 10 years, Lake Powell has been at record lows. These low lake levels have allowed the Mighty Colorado River to reclaim some of its former rapids. This has given us the chance to run 5 “new” rapids including the very fun and almost mile long rapid of Water Hole.

Our operations manager, Brenda, was able to squeeze in a Cataract Canyon trip before the government shutdown during the last week of September, and she reported lots of new debris flows from the recent rains.


One of these mudslides created a brand new rapid! Here is Brenda’s description of the new unnamed rapid: “A brand new rockslide has come from the right-side of the canyon to narrow the channel below Water Hole Canyon. At the low water level I ran it at it is was not huge maybe a class 3. The start of the rapid has a classic “V” into some fun splashy waves. If you break through the “V” to the left there is a runnable hole. The hole is little smaller than the Little Delores hole on Westwater Canyon. This should be a really fun rapid at higher flows.

YEAH new RAPIDS!"