Lake Fork of the Gunnison River- The Box (w/Alternate Exit)

The Lake Fork is a great river that gets overlooked by the larger paddling community because of it’s short season and far away location from other areas. However, for locals and those willing to make the trek, the Lake Fork rewards the effort with a handful of great runs.

This section, The Box, flows through an easy but dramatic box canyon made of old tuff, which is old ash deposits that have hardened into rock. Along the way there are numerous exposures of different tuff flows, and breccia (old volcanic mud & ash flows that also turned to rock), many of them weathered by time, wind and water into beautiful and strange pillars, towers, flutes, knobs, and more fantastical shapes.

On this trip I was joined by Matthew from Gunnison, and David of Moffat. Our flows were around 350 cfs on the Lake Fork @ Gateview gauge, and for this trip we utilized a small strip of BLM land about a mile south of the CO 149 bridge. This short trail allows single boats to exit here and avoid the problematic private property downstream.

Thanks to the boys for a great trip and thanks for watching!