Willow Beach to Hoover Dam and back
After our successful SUP camping trip in August, the group and I started looking for another adventure involving water and camping. Originally, we thought about a trip from Walter’s Camp south of Blythe down to Yuma. Unfortunately one of the best camping areas on this stretch is Picacho State Park, which is still COVID-Closed.
Cdub suggested that we do something on the Colorado below Hoover Dam. He had SUP’ed a few times from Willow Beach and recommended it. The itinerary came together after a couple of text message exchanges and some bike rides. The players involved ended up being me, Kuehlio, CDub, and The Hoff.
Day 1: Drive to Willow Beach and camp in Jumbo Wash the night before
Day 2: Launch and go upstream to Arizona Hot Springs, White Rock Wash, or a similar nearby spot
Day 3: Leave camp in place and go upstream to Hoover Dam; explore sites along the way
Day 4: Return to Willow Beach and come home to Flagstaff
The advantage of this plan was that it didn’t require any advanced planning, permits, shuttles, or troublesome logistics. We just showed up and enjoyed the river.
Day 1 – Camping out and drinking beer
The drive to Willow Beach from Flagstaff is an easy 3:15 cruise down I-40 and AZ93. We decided to camp at the old campground pads that are near the bottom of Jumbo Wash. This area is flat and only a 5 minute drive from Willow Beach. We inflated all the boards and began to tear through our beer. Dinner ended up being tortilla chips and two kinds of homemade salsa. In other words, the perfect dinner. Followed by the perfect sunset.
Day 2 – Willow Beach to AZ Hot Springs
The day was supposed to be our hardest, covering the most mileage while traveling upstream against the current. We wanted to be on the water by 8AM to make as much progress as possible. The released water at Hoover fluctuates during the day as electricity usage increases. For example, there’s very little current in the morning when Los Angeles is asleep. But the flow is at full force in the afternoon and evening when everyone is at home with their air conditioners fighting to maintain 76 degrees.
Unfortunately our first challenge of the day wasn’t the upstream current, but a dead battery on the truck. We thought that we were starting and recharging the battery enough as we pumped up our boards. We were incorrect. Kuehlio walked down to the Willow Beach marina and quickly found someone willing to come jump start the truck. This only set us back 45 minutes and we were happy to be camped close to available help.
We launched and made it about 6 miles before stopping for lunch. Typically the wind will blow up the canyon, but we weren’t as lucky. The headwind was a constant 15mph, forcing us to read the water to find spots that were “dead” between converging flows. We reached our camping spot around 3PM, before the big afternoon current peak around 4-6PM.
After setting up, we played in the currents at Ringbolt Rapids. Although not really white water, there were definitely some dynamics at play. It was good practice but also very humbling.
Following dinner we visited Arizona Hot Springs for a pre-bed soak. The ladder to the upper grotto was no longer in place, but the lower pools below were dammed to create nice tubs. We were the only ones there which made it easy to stay for about an hour. The night ended with us trying to shoo the two striped skunks away. They had no intention of leaving, so the two of us sleeping on the ground kept waking up to them sniffing around our heads. All our food was hanging up so they were not able to raid us. But waking up to a skunk a foot from your face is unnerving.
Day 3: AZ Hot Springs to Hoover Dam
Leaving our camp in place, we continued to paddle upstream with our lighter boards. We battled our way up river, but the combination of current and 40 mph head wind was really too much. We were forced to paddle from our knees to make any progress. We stopped at Boy Scout Canyon to self-motivate to make the push to Gold Strike Canyon. We didn’t make it. Portaging our boards up the beach directly opposite Palm Tree Hot Spring, we could see the bridge on highway 93. I think that we could have made it to the dam without the wind. It will just need to happen some other time.
We ate lunch and started back down river, stopping to hike and explore the points of interest. The waterfall at Palm Tree was nice to get a higher look at the river. We climbed up Boy Scout canyon to the second fixed hand line. The water in this canyon was too hot to enjoy for long periods of time. Returning to camp, everyone was exhausted from the hard paddle. Dinner, drinks, and skunks ensued.
Day 4: AZ Hot Springs to Willow Beach, then home
Our final day on the river was without pressure. We cleaned up our camp, loaded the boards, and were floating by 9AM. The 3 hour paddle allowed us to relax with almost no wind. We took advantage by swimming and listening to music in the 100 degree air. One hour after leaving Willow, we were at the Kingman In-N-Out recharging our batteries.
We saw several animals of note on the trip: desert bighorn sheep, bald eagle, golden eagle, striped skunk, kangaroo rat, and crawfish. At night I heard owls and wished they would come whisk our skunk friends away.
The entire trip was a success with a great group of friends. We got to explore a new area on the water only a few hours from home. We also have ideas to continue to float down river from Willow Beach to Katherine’s Landing and Lake Mohave. Lessons learned include:
- Reading the wind from the water
- Reading the water dynamics around “rapids”
- Skunks will swim to eat your food even though it is floating on a board in the water
Long Doggy World 
Such a great write-up on a rad trip Kent! And trip 3 is in the planning works!!!
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