First time up the San Juan - tell me what to do and see!

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Sampson767

Sampson767

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My Dad, Wife and I are heading to Powell for our annual camping trip this weekend! We're heading up Thursday and going for our spot in Last Chance, although with this heat wave coming we might be better with a spot with evening shade. I've heard that there's lots of good camping in friendship, the west side gets good evening shade correct? We might check that out. We'll have a tent and a couple cots.

For this trip we decided we'd like to explore up the San Juan! None of us have ever been up the San Juan arm, last year we passed the mouth heading for escalate and that's the closest I've been.

What should we do and see?! I've read the fishing can be fantastic, and I'll keep an eye out for Crocs 😅

Pics from our 23' October eclipse trip!
 

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Just go cruise up the Juan! Cha Bay is really nice, and you may see the wild burros. Somewhere in Cha Canyon, there's a rock with some pictographs on it. I've never actually seen it in person. Wilson Creek Canyon is pretty cool, and has an interesting "slimy" waterfall at the end. I really like Deep Canyon, as there is usually a running stream right down the middle of the slick rock. Not sure where the water ends, though, or if you can make it to Deep Canyon now?

Have fun!

Tifflowersanjuan.jpg
 
Cha and Desha are fun hikes, but pretty long walks, probably over two miles at this water level to get to slot canyons. Also you may have to slog through shallows to get to dry sand. Sorry I can’t be more optimistic. Our group talked about heading up there last weekend but some had heard about the challenging hiking conditions.
Cruising the San Juan is always cool, winding on the glassy water with the beautiful walls.
 
Thanks SeaLegs, Tiff and Trix for the responses! Cha bay is the goal for sure, probably not much further. I'm excited to catch some San Juan fish! I've seen good reports from Cha and Nasja lately. I assume with the walls there's good shade in San Juan? we'll probably do a picnic there for lunch one day.
SeaLegs said:
We plan on heading up to Rock Creek on Thursday. I was expecting cooler temps when I scheduled the tip but the consistent weather pattern should make for good fishing and the wife will enjoy the water temps.😎
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Yea I can't believe this heat coming through on the one weekend we can get up there. It's supposed to be 113 in phoenix on Saturday! No wind, no clouds. Ugh

Unfortunately we aren't going to do any big hikes this trip, due to the weather and my wife really doesn't like the "wade through the murk" type hikes 😅 we might go see rainbow bridge again though. I'm expecting a scorcher so we'll see.
 
I highly recommend the San Juan, just for how empty it is. Our group can fish (and wake surf) for days on end without seeing another boat.

The Westerly side of Cha Canyon should have some sandy campsites with afternoon shade at the current lake level. We were able to get all the way to Deep Canyon in late June as well. If you have the time, try to get to Zahn Bay - the sunsets are spectacular.

Have fun, and watch out for the crocs ;)
 
Cha said:
If you have the time, try to get to Zahn Bay - the sunsets are spectacular.
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Unfortunately, at the current lake level you can barely reach the beginning of the Great Bend, let alone the extra 15 miles it would take to reach Zahn Bay, which these days is nothing but a giant mudflat with the San Juan River cutting through. Zahn Bay might be accessible if the lake ever reached 3650 again, which last happened in 2011…
 
JFRCalifornia said:
Unfortunately, at the current lake level you can barely reach the beginning of the Great Bend, let alone the extra 15 miles it would take to reach Zahn Bay, which these days is nothing but a giant mudflat with the San Juan River cutting through. Zahn Bay might be accessible if the lake ever reached 3650 again, which last happened in 2011…
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Whoops! Thanks for the callout - I meant Piute Bay 😀
 
JFRCalifornia said:
Unfortunately, at the current lake level you can barely reach the beginning of the Great Bend, let alone the extra 15 miles it would take to reach Zahn Bay, which these days is nothing but a giant mudflat with the San Juan River cutting through. Zahn Bay might be accessible if the lake ever reached 3650 again, which last happened in 2011…
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I agree about Zahn Bay being non-reachable
 
We made it into friendship with just the last light of day fading yesterday. Picked the first spot on the left and it's pretty nice! Full shade after 2pm. Thanks Sealegs!

Fish jumped all night and we had a small boil just down the beach from us early morning but I unfortunately didn't have my rod out. We caught some decent small mouth around Gregory, Heading for San Juan tomorrow to get some striper!
 
Tiff,
The petroglyphs in Cha are about a mile up the stream bottom entering Cha at the point of the "V" canyon on the south side. that trail has been interrupted by a major slide that covers the trail but by now it's probably been reestablished. The pertos are in the lacquer faces of the large boulders at the junction of two washes that come together about a mile up the canyon from the lake. There's also a modern, very large effort at native art that says "Tuba City Mustangs". Chuck
 
San Juan Achieved!!!

We had a great trip, although warm. We made the journey up the San Juan to Cha bay and it was spectacular! Maybe 3 boats in the San Juan total, just incredible canyon walls and glassy water. We checked out Deep and Nasja Canyons and had some Lunch in the shade of the walls. Nasja was breathtaking at this lake level, the end of the canyon opens up under this huge shelf and we found running water coming out of the rock in the eastern arm of the canyon. We put well over 150mi on the Reinell 186FNS this weekend and I'm continually impressed with how well it handles the big water. Excellent fuel usage with a 23P prop even with the boat FULLY loaded. We bring way to much stuff boat camping :ROFLMAO:

Friendship cove was very gracious to us, provided an excellent camp spot with even a sliver of service from Navajo mountain. The stripers were ACTIVE in friendship, boiling along the west side around the balanced rock almost every morning/ night. Finally after all these years trying we got into some healthy stripers! Pulling good fighters almost every cast on Topwater popper and assassins. It was everything I've been hoping for, and caught PB striper at 3.8lbs and at least 24"!

Thanks to everyone on here who helped up out! Shout out to Tiff and SeaLegs!

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Sampson767 said:
San Juan Achieved!!!

We had a great trip, although warm. We made the journey up the San Juan to Cha bay and it was spectacular! Maybe 3 boats in the San Juan total, just incredible canyon walls and glassy water. We checked out Deep and Nasja Canyons and had some Lunch in the shade of the walls. Nasja was breathtaking at this lake level, the end of the canyon opens up under this huge shelf and we found running water coming out of the rock in the eastern arm of the canyon. We put well over 150mi on the Reinell 186FNS this weekend and I'm continually impressed with how well it handles the big water. Excellent fuel usage with a 23P prop even with the boat FULLY loaded. We bring way to much stuff boat camping :ROFLMAO:

Friendship cove was very gracious to us, provided an excellent camp spot with even a sliver of service from Navajo mountain. The stripers were ACTIVE in friendship, boiling along the west side around the balanced rock almost every morning/ night. Finally after all these years trying we got into some healthy stripers! Pulling good fighters almost every cast on Topwater popper and assassins. It was everything I've been hoping for, and caught PB striper at 3.8lbs and at least 24"!

Thanks to everyone on here who helped up out! Shout out to Tiff and SeaLegs!

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Nice picture of Wayneswords and Camel Rock! WG
 
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