Originally posted December 23, 2017
By Dan Custer
The RMCC Yampa trip of May 5-7, 2017, from South Beach to Duffy Mountain was a very pleasant float trip. It was scheduled for early May to avoid clouds of mosquitoes and hopefully have good flow. There were virtually no bugs. The weather was exceptional for early May. Light frost a couple of mornings and mostly sun in the afternoon with temps around 70 degrees. The river flow was always good. At the start the flow a below average 1800 CFS, but still made good paddling. Throughout the trip the river continued to rise and by third day we had a normal flow of about 3200 CFS. Typical flow rate was about 5 mph. It was rare to touch bottom with a paddle and we almost never had boats dragging in shallow riffles. This 32 mile trip could have been done in 2 days, however we allowed for 2 and a half days just in case the weather went bad. Both campsites were sand covered with lush green grass, where pitching a tent was easy. Plenty of dead wood was found at both campsites for an evening fire.
The shuttle took about 1 and half hours to complete. Although there was no
permit required to float the river, Colorado State Park permits were needed for
each vehicle parked at the put-in and take-out. On the first day, most of the
land was private ranch land and fenced. A railroad following the river until
mile 16 of the trip, but we saw no trains. On the last two days, most of the
land was BLM. Finding campsites on BLM land was not difficult. Note that BLM
requires the use of a firepan and groover.
Being early in May the cottonwoods had not leafed out, which allowed for easy
viewing of hawk and eagle nests. Wildlife seen on the trip included; adult and
baby bald eagles, a marmot, vultures, red tail hawks, fewer blue herons than
expected, killdeer, a scurrying group of racoons, pelicans in flight, deer,
swallows, many merganser pairs, and antelope. Footprints of racoon, and
possibly an otter, were also seen.