The Confluence of the Green and Colorado

A Little over a week ago a group of friends and I decided to voyage to the confluence of the Green and Colorado river . The trail-head is found deep in Canyonlands National Park and is an 11 mile round trip hike. We had a perfect Spring day for it. The sun was out, but the weather was not too hot for a long hike.  The dessert flowers and cacti were just starting to really bloom, making it a beautiful colorful walk.

Indian Paint Brush

view of the Needles

While the moderate trail is relatively easy, there and some cliffs to be mindful of and a short ladder is in place at one point to help transition one of these rocks. Total elevation change for the hike is 200 feet. I didn’t really feel the elevation change being that there are a lot of lengthy flat stretches in two different valleys and one long plateau.

The scenery is great throughout, but my favorite view along the hike was of the needles. We stopped with this great view to have lunch and re-hydrate.

We arrived at the confluence at about 2pm, roughly three and a half hours after we started, but we took lots of breaks for photos and lunch.

There is nothing quite like the view of the Confluence for the first time with your own two eyes. For this reason, I’n leaving the photo out. This is definitely something you want to see for yourself! The red color of the Colorado meeting the almost turquoise color of the Green is spectacular. The reason why the dividing line between the two is so visible is doe to the temperature differences in the rivers. Further downstream, they do eventually mix.

A side note for those of you who do not like to hike or are unable. There is a Jeep Safari trail that also takes you to the confluence. It is definitely a longer road, but I am told is equally as enjoyable.