As indicated earlier, all but one of the early river voyages began on the Green River. The Grand (Colorado) River above the confluence was neglected for some 18 years after Powell’s second voyage, until, in 1889, Frank M. Brown organized a company for construction of the proposed Denver, Colorado Canyon, and Pacific Railway. This railroad was to carry coal from mines in Colorado over a “water-level” line through the canyons of the Colorado River to the Gulf of California some 1,200 miles away; from there the coal would presumably be shipped to ports as far north as San Francisco (Dellenbaugh, 1902, p. 343-369). On March 26, 1889, Brown, president, F. C. Kendrick, chief engineer, and T. P. Rigney, assistant engineer, drove the first stake for a survey of the new line at Grand Junction, Colo., then Brown left for the East to obtain financing, and the other two plus some hired hands took off down the Grand River. After reaching the confluence they towed the boat up the Green River, thus becoming the first to make this trip upstream. They nearly ran out of food, but thanks to the hospitality of some cattlemen, they replenished their stock and after about 9 days reached the railroad at Green River, Utah. Brown, who had returned from the East, his newly appointed chief engineer, Robert Brewster Stanton, and 14 others in six ill-designed boats of cedar, rather than oak, left Green River on May 25, 1889. Against the advice of Major Powell and A. H. Thompson, Powell’s topographer on the 1871 trip, they carried no life preservers. After many mishaps, Brown and two others were drowned near the head of Marble Canyon, and the ill-fated expedition was temporarily halted. However, the indefatigable Stanton contracted for new boats built of oak and, with a reorganized party of 12, left the mouth of the Fremont (Dirty Devil) River on November 25. After many further mishaps, the party finally reached the Gulf of California on April 26, 1890. Needless to say the proposed railway was not built.
Although the Colorado River enters Canyonlands National Park about 33 river miles below Moab, most boaters or floaters begin their voyage either at Moab or near Potash, and most travelers of the White Rim Trail begin at Moab, so we will start our trip at Moab. No logs or river runners’ guides are available as yet for the reach from Moab to Potash, but below Potash some details of the geology have been described by Baars in Baars and Molenaar (1971, p. 59-87).
As noted at the beginning of this chapter, above the confluence both the Green and Colorado Rivers are very crooked, have very low grades, and are free from rapids. As with the Green, the soft rocks along the Colorado have a generally low northward dip that partly explains the river’s gentle grade and its southward flow through increasingly lower and older strata. Unlike the Green, however, the gentle dips of the strata in the canyons of the Colorado are interrupted by several gentle anticlinal ([fig. 14]) and synclinal ([fig. 26]) folds and by at least one fault. The most important of these geologic structures and other features will be noted as we journey down the river.
The first 14 miles from Moab Valley to Potash can be made either by river or by paved Utah Highway 279. This highway leaves U.S. Highway 163 near the uranium ore-reduction plant several miles northwest of Moab, leaves Moab Valley through The Portal ([fig. 68]), and follows the west bank of the river. A paved secondary road from Moab follows the east bank of the river through The Portal and through Kings Bottom, where it crosses the Kings Bottom syncline, to the mouth of Kane Springs Canyon, then becomes a gravel road that ascends this canyon southward to and beyond Hurrah Pass ([fig. 30]). High above this road north of Kings Bottom are petroglyphs and a few cliff dwellings in the vertical cliffs of Wingate Sandstone. A ranch “house” at Kings Bottom has been excavated entirely into the Wingate cliff. Convenient turnouts have been provided at several places along Highway 279 for viewing petroglyphs or other points of interest. Small viewing tubes welded to vertical steel posts having signs help visitors locate and see the features described.
THE PORTAL, in south wall of Moab Valley, through which the Colorado River, Utah Highway 279 (on right), and a paved secondary road (on left) leave the valley to enter the canyons in and above Canyonlands National Park. Rounded remnants on top are Navajo Sandstone; cliffs are Kayenta Formation and Wingate Sandstone; red slopes are Chinle and Moenkopi Formations, and perhaps a little of the Cutler Formation at the base. Light-colored patches at base of slope behind trees on left are contorted intrusions of Paradox Member of Hermosa Formation. (Fig. 68).
The Kings Bottom syncline ([fig. 30]) southwest of Moab Valley brings the Navajo Sandstone down to and slightly below water level, whereas at The Portal ([fig. 68]) the Navajo caps the southwest wall of Moab Valley. Several anticlines at or near the river from Potash to and beyond the confluence ([fig. 1]) bring up strata as old as the Rico or the unnamed upper member of the Hermosa. Between these extremes, much of the river’s course lies in strata of the Cutler Formation.
About 7 miles below The Portal, Highway 279 is joined on the right by a branch line of the Denver and Rio Grand Western Railroad completed in 1962 to haul potash 36 miles from the mine at Potash north to the main line at Crescent Junction. The railroad emerges from a tunnel at the head of Bootlegger Canyon. Two natural arches near the mouth of the tunnel—Pinto and Little Rainbow Bridge—can be reached by trail. About 3 miles farther down the Colorado is a temporary dock from which jet boats and the Canyon King, a 93-foot 150-passenger stern-wheeler, take off for points downriver during the spring and early summer, when water depth permits. The Canyon King ([fig. 69]), a small replica of a Mississippi River stern-wheeler, carries passengers about 30 miles downriver to the foot of Dead Horse Point and returns (Lansford, 1972).
About 12 miles below The Portal we reach Potash—the potash “mine” ([fig. 70]) of Texas Gulf, Inc. (See [fig. 31] and its associated text for description of operation.) Travelers down the jeep trail below Potash pass the evaporation ponds ([fig. 71]) used to separate the potash from common salt.
