9,800 CFS — Flaming Gorge full release. Features buried, eddy lines stiff, current fast and pushy.
Great time to be on the river. High water, great weather, good people, good times.
Clear and sunny both days.
River mood: Full release, fast and cold. Everything was underwater.
Visual character: Clear spring light. Bright green water through Red Canyon.
Pace: Fast and easy at the oars. Photography was the only challenge — gear had to be stowed before each rapid, even though the rapid lines were what you wanted to be closest to.
Cutty
Spillway to Indian Crossing at Full Release
9,800 CFS — Flaming Gorge full release. Clear and sunny, cool in canyon shadow.
Pleasant day floating and taking photos. Caught up with a Vernal crew — JJ, AJ, and Dillon — at one of the pulls, and spent a chunk of the float talking rivers with them. Sun, fast water, clean light through Red Canyon Rapid, and a dory tracking easy at 9,800. Camped solo at Indian Crossing at the takeout; had the place to myself and wasn't up much past dinner.
Spillway to Indian Crossing at Full Release
Flaming Gorge Dam at 9,800 CFS — full release blowing out the canyon below Spillway, green water already running fast from the first hundred yards.
Jon Koenig / Desert Maritime
Lifejacket-required sign on the bank — half-submerged at 9,800 CFS. Everything was underwater.
Jon Koenig / Desert Maritime
Midstream rock with a juniper still clinging on top — surge wrapping around it at full release through Red Canyon.
Jon Koenig / Desert Maritime
Big boulder mid-river with the surge stacking up against it — Red Canyon corridor running fast.
Jon Koenig / Desert Maritime
Red sandstone wall close to the bank with a weathered log on the grass shelf — A Section geology in afternoon light.
Jon Koenig / Desert Maritime
Wooded shoreline with rocks tumbling into the water — surface texture of the Green at full release.
Jon Koenig / Desert Maritime
Ponderosa pines on a red rock slope above the river — classic Red Canyon mix of conifer and red wall.
Jon Koenig / Desert Maritime
Cliff face detail — Uinta Mountain Group red rock weathered into ledges, a juniper holding a seam.
Jon Koenig / Desert Maritime
Looking downstream from the dory at a hooded boulder formation on river-left — A Section corridor opening out.
Jon Koenig / Desert Maritime
From the boat — red rock outcrop on river-left, the canyon corridor still narrow and fast.
Jon Koenig / Desert Maritime
Two figures on a sandstone bench at the water's edge, the river running cold and fast past them — solo float, busy section.
Jon Koenig / Desert Maritime
The dory tied up in shade above the Little Hole trail, clear cobble visible under the green tailwater.
Jon Koenig / Desert Maritime
Dory deck looking forward — oar shaft, sunscreen, dry bag, and the next read of the river ahead.
Jon Koenig / Desert Maritime
Last shot of the day — boats pulled ashore in the distance, wind on the surface as the float wound down toward Indian Crossing.
Jon Koenig / Desert Maritime
Dory and another small boat pulled up at the trees, American flag at the bank — a wind-roughed pull-out somewhere along the A Section.
Jon Koenig / Desert Maritime
Two boulders breaking the surface mid-river with surge waves wrapping past — features that disappear at lower flows running visible at 9,800.
Jon Koenig / Desert Maritime
Margaritas as Promised
9,800 CFS — full release. Clear and sunny, picture-perfect light.
Promised the Vernal boys a margarita run, so I was up at 5am. Broke down camp, drove the shuttle to Spillway, and floated the 11 miles down to follow up on the promise. Met another solo floater — Ryan, new on the oars and wanting to talk river — and we floated together. Rounded the bend just in time to flag down JJ, AJ, and Dillon as they were finishing breaking down camp and had figured me for a no-show. Margaritas, a lot of laughs, and a quick scramble up and around Red Creek Rapid to shoot photos of their runs at full release. Drove and photographed the Gates Of Lodore, from the hike and stayed the night in the Campground.
Margaritas as Promised
Pre-dawn shuttle — the camper truck on the bridge near Indian Crossing in early light, reeds and river below. Up at 5am to keep the margarita promise.
Jon Koenig / Desert Maritime
Spillway corridor at 9,800 CFS — second day on the same fast water.
Jon Koenig / Desert Maritime
Red Canyon walls catching morning side-light, river running fast below.
Jon Koenig / Desert Maritime
a section at 9800 cfs release
Jon Koenig / Desert Maritime
A Section corridor — narrow band of green water between red walls and conifer slope.
Jon Koenig / Desert Maritime
Surface light on fast water — the Green running cold and pushy under clear skies.
Jon Koenig / Desert Maritime
Red Canyon walls in clean morning light, calm reach between the busier sections.
Jon Koenig / Desert Maritime
Canyon walls and reflection — the corridor narrowing again as the float continued.
Jon Koenig / Desert Maritime
a section at 9800 cfs release
Jon Koenig / Desert Maritime
Tailwater green — surface chop and underlying clarity in the same frame.
Jon Koenig / Desert Maritime
Sun cresting the canyon rim — backlit walls, the river catching a starburst on still water.
Jon Koenig / Desert Maritime
Mid-canyon corridor at full release, light moving across the walls.
Jon Koenig / Desert Maritime
Red rock face above the river — geology detail in clean spring light.
Jon Koenig / Desert Maritime
A Section reach — red walls and green water, the canyon doing what it does.
Jon Koenig / Desert Maritime
Reflection in calmer water between fast sections — red wall doubled.
Jon Koenig / Desert Maritime
Canyon turn — current swinging the dory through the bend.
Jon Koenig / Desert Maritime
Red sandstone wall reflected on green water — A Section quiet stretch at full release.
Jon Koenig / Desert Maritime
Canyon corridor continuing — fast water under steady sun.
Jon Koenig / Desert Maritime
Mid-canyon — light, water, walls.
Jon Koenig / Desert Maritime
Approaching another bend, the canyon settling into its second-day rhythm.
Jon Koenig / Desert Maritime
Below Little Hole — the canyon opening into Browns Park as the B Section began.
Jon Koenig / Desert Maritime
B Section reach — corridor widening, walls dropping back.
Jon Koenig / Desert Maritime
Approaching the Vernal crew's camp — the bend where the morning's plan finally caught up to itself.
Jon Koenig / Desert Maritime
Quieter water through Browns Park — cottonwood and sage on the banks.
Jon Koenig / Desert Maritime
Building up to Red Creek — fast water and the read for the scout-and-shoot scramble.
Jon Koenig / Desert Maritime
Vernal boys' dory dropping through Red Creek Rapid at 9,800 CFS — shot from the scramble above the rapid after the margarita pickup.
Jon Koenig / Desert Maritime
Below the wave train at Red Creek — Vernal boys' boat clearing the run.
Jon Koenig / Desert Maritime
Red Creek aftermath — current flushing past the photographer's perch above.
Jon Koenig / Desert Maritime
Looking back upstream from the scramble — the rapid running clean at full release.
Jon Koenig / Desert Maritime
Red Creek wave train — water shapes that only exist at this flow.
Jon Koenig / Desert Maritime
Red Creek detail — the river working its features.
Jon Koenig / Desert Maritime
Vernal boys pulling out of the rapid — boat continuing downstream toward the takeout.
Jon Koenig / Desert Maritime
Aftermath of the run — water laying back down below the wave train.
Jon Koenig / Desert Maritime
Back at the dory — gear staged, photos secured.
Jon Koenig / Desert Maritime
Browns Park reach — open sky, cottonwood bottoms, river slowing back into its valley character.
Jon Koenig / Desert Maritime
B Section corridor — light on the surface, banks pulling back.
Jon Koenig / Desert Maritime
Bend below Red Creek — current still fast but the canyon walls gone.
Jon Koenig / Desert Maritime
Open valley — Browns Park beginning in earnest.
Jon Koenig / Desert Maritime
Side channel through reeds — small boat far ahead, the wide-open feel of the B Section.
Jon Koenig / Desert Maritime
Cottonwood bottoms along the bank — late afternoon light returning.
Jon Koenig / Desert Maritime
Browns Park reach — sage and water in the same frame.
Jon Koenig / Desert Maritime
Approaching Indian Crossing — last miles of the day.
Jon Koenig / Desert Maritime
Dusk through the sage — looking back up the canyon mouth from camp at Indian Crossing.
Jon Koenig / Desert Maritime
Evening light over the Indian Crossing reach.
Jon Koenig / Desert Maritime
Last light on the canyon walls above camp.
Jon Koenig / Desert Maritime
Overlook from the scramble — Browns Park canyon mouth and river visible far below, the country the trip just floated through.
Jon Koenig / Desert Maritime
- At 9,800 CFS the A/B itinerary is a current trip, not a feature trip — read flow, not rocks.
- Photography on fast water means staging cameras before the next move, not chasing it after.
- The best Red Creek photos at this flow came from a scramble, not the boat.
Good for: experienced oarsmen comfortable in cold pushy water, photographers chasing full-release light and scale
Not ideal for: beginners, anyone not dressed for cold-water immersion
Ideal length: Single day Spillway → Indian Crossing at full release; two days if you want to shoot or shuttle around for repeat runs.
Best flows: 800–3,000 CFS for the classic A/B character; 9,000+ for a fast push-through.
At full release the A/B itinerary stops being a fishing or beginner trip. Pre-stage cameras and dry gear before the obvious moves, and don't trust eddies that normally hold.
Solo dory at full release — light load, clean rigging, cameras staged for fast deployment.
Flow: USGS Green at Greendale, UT (USGS 09234500) — approximate, single-value from release report, 9,800–9,800 cfs daily mean.
Useful reference for anyone running A/B at full release — current dominates, features are subdued, and the river covers structure you can see at normal flows.
Green River — Sept 2023 (Fishing, 2,000–2,200 CFS)
Desolation Canyon — March 2026
Moab Daily — May 2020 (Cinco de Mayo, Dropping Flows)
Green River — Labor Day 2021 (800–1,200 CFS)
Cataract Canyon — September 2020
Cataract Canyon — June 2023
Gray Canyon — September 2023 (Nefertiti Base Camp)
Professor Valley — August 2025 (Jelsey Wedding)
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