Colorado River - Packrafting from Goldstrike to Ringbolt

derekrichardson(71)

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For this weeks Amazing Nature Contest by @adalger I head out to the Colorado river to checkout some really Amazing Nature on an incredible packrafting trip from...

Goldstrike to Ringbolt!!

Somehow I got it in my mind that I wanted to try some packrafting. So I hit up my buddy Ryan and he planned us an awesome trip on the Colorado river! We drove out across the desert and met up at the Ringbolt trailhead. We left my truck there and then drove around to the Goldstrike trailhead. We tied our packrafts onto our backpacks and started making our way down Goldstrike canyon. As we hiked the canyon got more narrow and rugged, even requiring a few small rappels. And as we got down to the lower end of the canyon we started seeing some of the hot springs. There were a few people there enjoying the pools, but pretty quickly they all disappeared back up the canyon. We made our way to the bottom where the canyon met the Colorado river. After checking out the river we headed back up the canyon a little ways and found a spot to camp for the night.Then we spent the rest of the evening enjoying the many hot pools!

Hiking below highway 93 at the top end of Goldstrike canyon

Descending Goldstrike canyon

Hiking down Goldstrike canyon

Goldstrike hotsprings

The Colorado river

Goldstrike hotsprings

Colorful mosses growing in the hot warter

Enjoying the hot pools

Our first camp

The next morning we headed back down to the river and blew up our rafts. We loaded up our gear and set sail for the first time! First we paddled a short distance upstream where we checked out some more hot water sources and the sauna cave. We chilled in the sauna cave for a bit and then hit the river again this time heading downriver. We casually floated down passing many smaller hot water sources. We stopped often to check out side canyons and hot springs. One really cool one was a hot pool at the top of a waterfall!

Getting ready to set sail for the first time

The sauna cave

Inside the Sauna cave

Exploring side canyons

Floating downriver

Hotspring waterfall

The hot pool on top of the waterfall

Overlooking the river

Exploring another side canyon

"The Ear"

Eventually we docked at the mouth of Boyscout canyon where we made our second camp. We spent the evening exploring the canyon and enjoying the hot springs.

Exploring Boyscout canyon

Overlooking our camp

Overlooking the river

The next day we continued floating downriver exploring more side canyons and hot water sources eventually landing at another beach with a beautiful canyon (which unfortunately I don't remember the name) with more hot springs! We found a spot to setup our camp and then we headed up the canyon. And we found two nice pools to soak in. One had a hot waterfall pouring into it which was super cool. The second pool was deeper and much warmer, but it was full of algae. So we spent some time cleaning it up and then enjoyed soaking there the rest of the evening.

Looking across the river

Exploring

Hotspring waterfall

Reflections in the cove

Another view from the cove

Relaxing at camp

Enjoying the hot waterfall

Soaking

The next morning we got our stuff packed up and headed back down to the river. Unfortunately when we were getting our rafts all packed up Ryan discovered a leak! It wasn't a big leak, but we knew if it got worse while we were out on the river things could get bad. We packed up our rafts and started paddling. Getting through the last section as quickly as possible. The leak continued to grow, but luckily it never got bad enough to cause a major issue. We both successfully arrived at the mouth of Ringbolt canyon where we packed up our rafts and headed up the canyon to the hot springs for one last soak. Ringbolt is awesome, but also the most popular and it was actually quite crowded which was a stark contrast for us after seeing almost nobody since our first day at Goldstrike.

Getting ready for our final voyage

Floating downriver

Tarantula

Hiking up Ringbolt canyon

Climbing up the ladder to Ringbolt hot springs

Ringbolt hot springs

After enjoying our final soak of the trip we headed up the canyon. On our way out we made a bit of a detour and we were actually able to find some really neat Native American petroglyphs! Then we climbed up out of the canyon and made the final trek across the hot sandy desert to the Ringbolt trailhead where my truck was waiting for us! It was definitely an awesome trip. And despite the issue with Ryans raft having leaking issues at the end we both thoroughly enjoyed our first pack rafting adventure!

Petroglyphs