# New take out at Dirty Devil ( Cataract Canyon)



## GC Guide (Apr 10, 2009)

Sorry Durangloski, the photo is way out of focus......wait, nope it's not even there!


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## durangloski (May 12, 2009)

Well. SHIIT


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## skiersteve3 (Apr 29, 2011)

Lake Powell is dropping nearly a foot every five days so yes, things will be lower. Try and get that picture up if you can, also definitely post a trip report when you get back. I'm most interested in the amount of current you have to the take out. Looking forward to getting back on Cat next May....lake should be really low by then!

Lake Powell Water Database

On a side note, amazingly Lake Powell has only recieved 74% of last years total inflow to date....this year is actually projected to be the lowest total inflow on record for Lake Powell. As much as people thought this year was WAYYYY better than last year, it doesn't really appear to be the case.


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## durangloski (May 12, 2009)

I have heard there is current to Dirty Devil.

I am hoping to spend the night at the New(ish) camp across from Dark Canyon. It is rumored to be there this year. 

I am hoping that the water is not too low to use a motor above the confluence. 2000cfs is going to be scrapping by. I envision something like the San Juan at 500cfs or below. I am also guessing the rapids will be boney...


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## Rojo (May 31, 2012)

Glad to hear that the takeout has had some work done.
We often do a Nov Cat trip so I'll be watching for current takeout photos as well.

See shortcut to previous Cataract thread, including a picture of Dark canyon camp with river at 17.5kcfs late May.
http://www.mountainbuzz.com/forums/f42/late-june-cataract-cyn-47942.html?highlight=Cataract


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## kazak4x4 (May 25, 2009)

Has anyone taken out on the improved take out yet?


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## durangloski (May 12, 2009)

The picture was taken by a commercial shuttle driver picking up a commercial trip. I talked to him and he said he has seen very few private trips and none of them have posted in any of these forums. I will be sure to post something a few days after getting off. Alex, Are you on my Facebook page? I have a delorme inreach. I used it on the Grand and on Open water sailing trips. I usually post to facebook nightly about the progress and conditions ect... It uses the Iridium Satellite System.


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## kazak4x4 (May 25, 2009)

I don't believe I am. When are you going? We were thinking of doing a Labor Day trip and would love to know about the take out prior to it.


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## durangloski (May 12, 2009)

AUG 21-27.....


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## summitraftgirl (Jul 23, 2008)

My husband and I are planning on going from Aug. 17 - Aug. 23, just the two of us. We keep hearing mixed reviews of the Dirty Devil, so we're seriously considering going to Bullfrog. Yes, we have a motor. Really don't want to plan on the Dirty Devil, then get there and see that we have to completely de-rig our 16' cat and trudge through the mud to take out. My husband is planning to call and ask specifically to speak to a river ranger, so I'll be sure to post back if that happens and let you all know what the river ranger has to say about the take out situation.


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## durangloski (May 12, 2009)

Good luck getting ahold of them. Because of budget cut backs they have not been downriver very frequently this year. They do have a phone number but they don't answer it very often. Ask for Tberry... Or Skylar..
As for the take out . I think this new ramp is the solution to avoid a 45 mile float to BullFrog . Looks like you can drive to the edge of the river and mud will be your only adversary.


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## kazak4x4 (May 25, 2009)

Thanks for the feedback. Everyone in my group trailers their boats fully rigged, we have big boats and it would be a pain to completely de-rig. I'd be really interested if you could provide a feedback if trailers can be brought close or dropped into the river (is what I usually do). 

Chugging to Bullfrog wouldn't be an option for us.

Also, feedback on Big Drop 2 at low water. Last year we did it at 4,500 cfs and one of our boats barely squeezed in, anything lower and that boat would have a problem.


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## summitraftgirl (Jul 23, 2008)

kazak4x4 said:


> Thanks for the feedback. Everyone in my group trailers their boats fully rigged, we have big boats and it would be a pain to completely de-rig. I'd be really interested if you could provide a feedback if trailers can be brought close or dropped into the river (is what I usually do).
> 
> Chugging to Bullfrog wouldn't be an option for us.
> 
> Also, feedback on Big Drop 2 at low water. Last year we did it at 4,500 cfs and one of our boats barely squeezed in, anything lower and that boat would have a problem.


We also trailer our cat fully loaded, and since it'll just be the two of us, backing into the river would be ideal.

My husband is at work, otherwise I'm sure he'd be chiming in, but he did Cat last Sept. at 3300 in our 16' cat, which is 8' wide. He has photos and gopro footage of the big drops at that flow, so I'll try to get that posted for you later tonight. He had no problems. He said he thought the only tight spot for him was BD 3, which he made it through just fine. His personal cutoff would be about 2700, as he's seen photos of it at that flow. Stay tuned!


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## durangloski (May 12, 2009)

summitraftgirl said:


> We also trailer our cat fully loaded, and since it'll just be the two of us, backing into the river would be ideal.
> 
> My husband is at work, otherwise I'm sure he'd be chiming in, but he did Cat last Sept. at 3300 in our 16' cat, which is 8' wide. He has photos and gopro footage of the big drops at that flow, so I'll try to get that posted for you later tonight. He had no problems. He said he thought the only tight spot for him was BD 3, which he made it through just fine. His personal cutoff would be about 2700, as he's seen photos of it at that flow. Stay tuned!




SHOOT!! Dont say that. I think we are going to see 2000CFS....
I heard another Rafter say his min was 1800... But that is a Subjective numbers since it has not been that low..hummm.. 2002? Maybe? 

This is all I can find..

Big Drop 3 Cataract Canyon Low Water a little too far right. - YouTube


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## summitraftgirl (Jul 23, 2008)

durangloski said:


> SHOOT!! Dont say that. I think we are going to see 2000CFS....
> I heard another Rafter say his min was 1800... But that is a Subjective numbers since it has not been that low..hummm.. 2002? Maybe?


These are the photos from the NPS at 2700. That's his minimum in our 16' cat. We have a 13' raft that he might take lower 

Low Water FAQs - Canyonlands National Park


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## boogercookie (Feb 18, 2011)

We took out at dirty devil ramp on July 5. The ramp was semi steep gravel down to the mud flat. The jeep was able to back down almost all the way. Mud was pretty dry and solid. Not sure how monsoon season will be. Might be able to drag boat over mud to the edge of gravel with a tow strap. 
We had current all the way to dirty devil, but very glad we had a motor.
The camp one mile upstream of dark canyon on river left is great. Much better than dark canyon itself.


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## Fuzzy (May 25, 2005)

*Hite*

Ran cat last year very low flows. We got a tow out by some motor boats fishing around Dark Canyon. They took us to the boat ramp at hite. Yes there is one that the fishing dudes use to trailer their motor boats in and out. Worked out great. enough room for our 5 rafts and people to de-rig. Just a thought might want to check that side out
BTW Big Drops are slow but very technical Love that place


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## kazak4x4 (May 25, 2009)

durangloski said:


> SHOOT!! Dont say that. I think we are going to see 2000CFS....
> I heard another Rafter say his min was 1800... But that is a Subjective numbers since it has not been that low..hummm.. 2002? Maybe?
> 
> This is all I can find..
> ...


That's our video, that was taken at around 4,500 cfs Labor Day 2012. We had an 18 foot massive cat go through it without any problems.


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## WillYates (Aug 3, 2007)

Saw this pic of the improved ramp at DD. Looks like you can back down to the waters edge but maybe not in the water. Heading out in two weeks! Will post pics when we get back. 

http://www.nps.gov/cany/planyourvisit/lakelevels.htm


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## kazak4x4 (May 25, 2009)

WillYates said:


> Saw this pic of the improved ramp at DD. Looks like you can back down to the waters edge but maybe not in the water. Heading out in two weeks! Will post pics when we get back.
> 
> Lake Powell - Canyonlands National Park


Thanks for the link, that just looks nasty!


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## summitraftgirl (Jul 23, 2008)

We took off at Bullfrog this past Saturday morning the 24th. Again, we decided to go all the way to the marina because it was just my husband and myself, and a big 16' cat. We needed to be sure we could get our trailer to the water. Our shuttle driver, Kelly Dunham of River Express Shuttles, took some photos of the Dirty Devil takeout before we left for our trip. She confirmed that it was steep and muddy and that people had not been driving down. This helped to solidify our decision to continue on to the marina to take out. 

While we were in the canyon, we ran into a group of rangers that were doing weed mitigation. We asked them about the Dirty Devil takeout. They still use it, but have inflatable tubes that they use as rollers to get their raft up the steep section. They also confirmed that no one is driving down, but carrying everything up the steep ramp. Side note: these rangers were awesome and even gave us one of their left over blocks of ice since we were continuing on for a couple of days.

We took these photos as we passed by the Dirty Devil takeout. It's very difficult to tell how steep that ramp is, but I can assure you that you will not want to drive down it. The mud at the water's edge was mostly dry, but very rutted out and could easily get super muddy again with a rain event (which we had a lot of and is still continuing right now). We would have definitely taken out here if we'd had a large group to help haul gear. If you plan on using this takeout, be prepared for a long haul and for it to take some time. 

For those interested, we stopped at Hite and hiked up to the gas station/convenience store. We bought an additional three gallons of gas, just in case, as well as more ice. The lady that runs the gas station is super nice. The store is open until 4pm, but she lives behind it and said that she'd open it if someone came by and needed something. Otherwise, the gas was pay at the pump.

We spent Thursday afternoon, all of Friday, and Saturday morning on the lake. The river was flowing all the way until you hit the first big open bay. Then it was a cool mixture of chocolate milk river water and green lake water. Thursday afternoon was very pleasant on the lake. Friday was nice as well up until mid afternoon when the winds picked up. The water also got rougher from the increasing boat traffic as we got closer to the marina. Hard to believe after doing it with our engine that people have actually rowed to Bullfrog before...major props to them.

The rangers said Cat was flowing at 3800 when we hit the rapids on Wednesday. We had no problems in our 16' cat. We scouted Big Drop 2 and 3. I think we counted 30 or maybe even 31 rapids now due to the lake continuing to drop. A lot of springs are also pushing through the sediment on the banks after the rapids - pretty cool. We probably had two nice days out of eight total. It was either way overcast with a storm right at our backs or in our faces threatening to let loose at any moment. It stayed overcast almost every night, which meant that it was super hot with all of the cloud cover. Even with it being monsoon season, we thought there was an unusual amount of storms brewing. 

We braved the Dollhouse hike, but waited until about 5pm to start. It was perfect, as the sun had gone down behind the cliff so we were in the shade for the hike up. When we got to the top the sun was just beginning to set so the Dollhouse was lit up like crazy. Highly recommend doing the hike this way if you're up for it.

We saw several groups of canoes on Stillwater as well as one other group of rafters (three rafts and five people). Then on Cat we saw the group of three rangers and one commercial group on a j-rig. Other than that, we had the river to ourselves.

I think that about covers everything major, but let me know if you have any other questions. Hope you all enjoy your upcoming trips!


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## summitraftgirl (Jul 23, 2008)

Pictures of Big Drops 2 and 3


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## kazak4x4 (May 25, 2009)

Thanks for the feedback! That "ramp" looks nasty, I am glad we decided not to pursue our trip over Labor Day and going to wait it out. Our boats are too big to carry by hand and pushing to marina takes too long. 

I can't believe how far the water is from Hite! WOW! Last year we took out at Hite in the mud, but we were still able to drop our trailers.


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## asleep.at.the.oars (May 6, 2006)

Nice finger assist on the BD 3 pics! I love describing the low water line: Line up between the 2 rocks you can't see from water level, then ship your oars because it works even though it looks like it doesn't. 

I ran in '03 at the lowest flows of that year in an 18' bucket boat. BD 2 was a right run but not all that tight of a move. Not sure a minimum, but it changes character more than becomes impassable at those low flows. 

Can't wait til even more rapids get dug out of the muck!


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## summitraftgirl (Jul 23, 2008)

asleep.at.the.oars said:


> BD 2 was a right run but not all that tight of a move. Not sure a minimum, but it changes character more than becomes impassable at those low flows.


BD 2 was a right run, just right of the big rock in the picture attached. We shipped the oars and floated right through the perfect spot with no problems. Once I get the GoPro footage edited I'll try to post it.


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## Peev (Oct 24, 2003)

Were there many camps below the big drops to Dirty Devil?


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## summitraftgirl (Jul 23, 2008)

Peev said:


> Were there many camps below the big drops to Dirty Devil?


There are some really nice sandbar camps scattered throughout below the Big Drops.


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## durangloski (May 12, 2009)

*CAT*

Good Times on Cat. I have lots of info on Camps and Rapids. Send me an email or PM me here and I will write out a longer trip report. As for the RAMP!!!!!!!!!!!!! We got to the ramp after 3 days of rain. It was nasty but manageable. We had 15 people to derig 7 boats and it took 2 hours. It was not a big deal. We completely deriged and then walked empty boats up the hill. 
The Glen Canyon NPS Rangers were there talking about how to improve the ramp in the future. I believe that means they are looking at getting large machines into the lake in the very near future. ( few weeks) so hopefully for people looking for a final trip of the year there may be changes on the horizon. Stay Tuned!!


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## nemi west (Jun 22, 2006)

How do you get the mud off your groover


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## durangloski (May 12, 2009)

hahahaha...


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## restrac2000 (Mar 6, 2008)

What happened to the takeout just lower than the one in the photos? Always been there in years past. Located in an eddy just below one in photos. The one in the photos has always been steeper. All of us taking out in the spring used the downstream "ramp". Never had traditional trailer access but massive J-rigs were being derigged along with our 18' bucket boat.

Is that one gone now?


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## zbaird (Oct 11, 2003)

the lower takeout is still there but there is tons of debris and it is a worse mud flat and cut bank than the steep one. I wondered why they didnt just maintain that one.


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## restrac2000 (Mar 6, 2008)

Its the one i would still use from the photos.....

There was always mud and debris there.

Hite Area, March 1, 2013 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

It took us less than 2 hours for 2 of us to derig an 18' bucket boat there in the spring. Really not much harder than derigging at the Swasey Ramp full of people on any given takeout day. But we never trailer our raft inflated anyways.....guess I don't have that to compare to.

I have launched sea kayaks there and derigged there for a decade now and it has remained about the same. Never pleasant but useable. 

It was impressive to watch the teamwork of the crew dismantling the J-Rig.....

Phillip


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