Today we got to take our first (of what I hope to be many!) run down two different sections of the Verde River! I fell in love with the fun twists and turns we encountered.
We met the group at 8:30 at the first put in point, Lower Tapco. You can pull right up and drop your kayak right by the water and the shuttle only took about 20 minutes. The takeout point for the first run is Tuzigoot Bridge.
By comparison, the Verde is a much narrower river. Today it was running only 57 cfs, this is quite low and the water was very shallow and we rubbed a few rocks along the way but it was no biggie. During the summer his is a typical cfs but as cooler weather approaches and throughout the winter the river flow will increase upwards of 5,000 cfs. The average cfs may be around _______. Last winter there was a flash flood that ran the river at an amazing 25,000 cfs! Here is some video I found on YouTube ———
My friends told us that with every water level you run you get a different experience and that is what makes the river so much fun. I can’t wait to see it for myself!
Even at 57 cfs on this section we did not have to paddle much making for a very relaxing day. Oh! The temps here is Clarkdale were only in the low 90s this morning making it feel like spring coming in from the 115 in the valley!
I was, of course, loving all the wildflowers lining the banks!
Since it was my first run I was more careful with my phone put for pics and it was hard to capture all the little spits of twists and turns of quicker moving water. Next time I will be more prepared with a way to capture some good footage of that!
Here is the dam that was destroyed by the flash floods from the winter I mentioned above. The dam held more of a small lake in this area and I believe you had to go around his section differently before the flood.
The first run took us about 2 hours plus maybe a bit for shuttle. Next up was all headed to Lunch at Bombaz Grill in Cottonwood. I had the enchiladas, which included 3 so I had one beef, cheese and chicken all Christmas style, Greg had the discada tacos and we both had margaritas. If you ever have an opportunity for discada meat, go for it! That stuff was delicious!! The food was delicious! The staff was terribly ill prepared for our group of 9.
After lunch we headed to the put in for run number 2 for the day! Clear Creek to Beasley for this run, which is 2.5-3 hours. This section was running around 87 cfs today.
This section was also full of fun little spits and technical twists and turns. They make this river a lot of fun!
I am not gonna lie… there were spiders on me and in my boat more than I really care for on this run. These are the water crawlers…..
We followed this beautiful heron for down the river for a while! I am sure he got pretty annoyed by our follow-the-leader game ??
We saw this handsome guy, a juvenile hawk, I got too close trying to get a better picture and chased him off 🙁
I love the canopies of trees and all the shade we got was beautiful!
Closing out this day around 5, we did not get home until around 9. It was a beautiful day and I am loving this river!
It is my little dream to run the full river down to Scottsdale, which is about a 4 day/3 night kayak/camping adventure which involves a skill level much higher than my current to navigate with some pretty rough sections and some pretty remote areas.
Here’s a great write-up of a trip that a group took which details the sections and all things involved in making such a trip. And this YouTube video of another group who did the trip. One day I shall….
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