Wild Wild, West Canoeing the Green River, Utah, USA

I first read about the Green River when searching for a great paddle trip in the southwest USA.The 1,170 km waterway is the chief tributary of the Colorado River, its source in Wyoming’s Wind River Mountains. Descriptions of the river's abundant wildlife and stunning scenery as it makes its way to the Colorado quickly piqued my interest. A few months later, we are floating through the confluence of the Green and the Colorado, close to the end of our trip, when a sentence I read doing research pops back in my mind, and I feel that the fact sheet got it wrong. Tributary it may be, from the canoe point of view, the Green River looks bigger and has a higher water flow than the Colorado! Besides, the drainage basin of the Green River is more extensive than that of the Colorado River above the confluence, thus, we jokingly decide, the Colorado should be renamed the Green!

But let's start at the beginning. We choose to paddle the lower section of the Green River called Stillwater Canyon because only half of our team craves an adrenaline-pumping whitewater experience. The other half is content with a leisurely expedition.

We pack into a big van and leave the small