The Thelon and Elk Rivers

T-shirt weather in the arctic

Comment On This Article

Add to My Favorites

The one-word description for the Upper Thelon—from the Elk to the Hanbury—is sand. Golden sand, bluish sand, yellow sand, red sand, coarse sand, fine sand—in fact if a camel had wandered over the top of one of the dunes it would not have appeared out of place to us.

Camping along this section is excellent and the only major obstacle is the Thelon canyon—and is it a canyon! Cut through 80-foot-high sheer vertical walls of yellowish white sandstone, it is a series of huge holes and ledges that seem to go on forever—a distance of perhaps two-and-a-half miles. Were this canyon within a hundred miles of any major city it would be declared a national monument complete with an interpretive center and guided tours.

Trip reports indicate you can portage around both the right and left sides. On either side, it is a "long-haul" and estimates I have seen seem to be in the 3- to 4-mile range. We lined the canyon on river left but in the water level we found it was nearly impossible. It would have been out of the question without a covered boat. We leap-frogged the boat down the fast flowing corners with two stern lines—a bow line here would have just got us into big trouble.

Often we were knee-deep in extremely fast current racing over wet very slippery sandstone where it was impossible to stand without hanging on to the vertical sandstone walls with my left hand. Try to imagine standing at the top of a water slide holding onto a 450-pound canoe with your right hand and using your left hand to inch your way down. Yikes!! Skill aside, there was a large measure of good luck that saw us safely through the canyon.