Upper San Juan Canyon Camp
An upper San Juan camp in the open valley above Bluff — cottonwood shade, desert mesa views, and the quiet character of the river before it enters the canyon downstream.
Upper San Juan Canyon Camp sits on the upper San Juan River in southeastern Utah, in the section between Montezuma Creek and Bluff. The upper San Juan runs through a broad, shallow valley cut into Cretaceous and Jurassic formations — the landscape is more open than the entrenched canyons downstream, with mesas and buttes visible on the horizon and the river winding through cottonwood-lined banks. The camp occupies a sandy bench on river right above a gravel bar, with mature cottonwood shade and views across the valley to the sandstone bluffs that give the town of Bluff its name. This section of the San Juan is less frequently run than the lower canyon — the current is moderate, the rapids are minor riffles, and the appeal is in the open desert scenery, the bird life along the riparian corridor, and the Ancestral Puebloan and Navajo cultural landscape that surrounds the river. The camp serves as an overnight stop for groups running the upper section before continuing into the lower canyon at Bluff.