The Box Canyon on the Clark's Fork of the Yellowstone River is an experience of a lifetime. The whitewater is big, the portages are long, and the gorge walls are massive. So massive that The Box is the 3rd deepest canyon in the United States (just behind the Grand Canyon and Hell's Canyon). It's committing to say the least.
The run is about 25 miles long and takes 2 days to complete (if all goes well). It's also in the middle of Nowhere, Wyoming, so it take a whole day to drive there and find it and do the shuttle.
The run starts out with a 3 mile Class IV/V warm-up called The Honeymoon Section, but then the walls gorge up and the honeymoon is over. Once in the box, you're greeted with the mile-long Green Monster Portage. It's a mile of bushwacking around in the woods, but it isn't nearly as difficult as the other 5-6 portages downstream.
After the Green Monster, there's about 4 miles of moving flatwater, but it's one of the most scenic flatwater floats I've ever done. Northern Wyoming is a spectacular place.
(lunch after the flatwater)
(here's what Tom thinks of flatwater)After the flatwater, we ran some drops, did some portaging, and did some boat recoveries after a few swims. The best rapid of the day was Balls to the Wall, it was also probably one of the more difficult rapids on the run.
(Tom, opting for the rightside line in Balls)
(Sticking my line in Balls)
(Tom, opting for the rightside line in Balls)
(Sticking my line in Balls)After an epic swim and an ensuing epic recovery, we made it to camp. The thing that's cool about this run is that you're able to hike out to the canyon rim and car camp between days on the water. The only catch is you haave to make it to the hike out gully before dark, or you're spending the night at river level. We luckily made it on time, with all 4 boaters, but only 3 boats. One of the group members (the only one of us who had ever been in there before) lost his boat after swimming at Balls to the Wall and we weren't able to find it.
So we were able to car camp after day one and hike back down and run the rest of the box on day two. The only difference on day two was that our crew of four became a crew of three and none of us knew the river at all, so we had to go in there 1st D style and scout everything.
Day two has much more difficult whitewater than day one, including 2 mandatory (and kinda hard to scout) Class V drops. Day two has some pretty burly portages as well.
All the above photos are from a rapid called Deliberation Corner. It's one of the mandatory drops that you absolutely can not portage. It's intimidating, especially since you can't really set safety for it either.
My favorite drop was called Leap of Faith, a blind/mandatory 20 footer near the end of the crux of the box.
After lunch on day two, we had 2 big portages and I was realllllly dehydrated. Halfway through the 2nd portage, my body shut down and I had to load up with sugar quickly and rehydrate because there was still 7 miles to go before the take out and it was getting late. Luckily the crew I was with was able to help me out and they were able to help me refuel before paddling out.
Finally, we reached the takeout and drank the appropriate post-paddling beverages. The scenery in this canyon is second to none. If you ever have a chance to get in there, jump on it.
It's not to be taken lightly, our guide swam twice and lost his boat and paddle on the second swim. This resulted in some sketchy exit procedures that I wouldn't ever want to repeat. Luckily, another crew found his boat a day later and he was able to hike in and get it out. Talk about good luck.
So we were able to car camp after day one and hike back down and run the rest of the box on day two. The only difference on day two was that our crew of four became a crew of three and none of us knew the river at all, so we had to go in there 1st D style and scout everything.
Day two has much more difficult whitewater than day one, including 2 mandatory (and kinda hard to scout) Class V drops. Day two has some pretty burly portages as well.
All the above photos are from a rapid called Deliberation Corner. It's one of the mandatory drops that you absolutely can not portage. It's intimidating, especially since you can't really set safety for it either.My favorite drop was called Leap of Faith, a blind/mandatory 20 footer near the end of the crux of the box.
After lunch on day two, we had 2 big portages and I was realllllly dehydrated. Halfway through the 2nd portage, my body shut down and I had to load up with sugar quickly and rehydrate because there was still 7 miles to go before the take out and it was getting late. Luckily the crew I was with was able to help me out and they were able to help me refuel before paddling out.
Finally, we reached the takeout and drank the appropriate post-paddling beverages. The scenery in this canyon is second to none. If you ever have a chance to get in there, jump on it.
It's not to be taken lightly, our guide swam twice and lost his boat and paddle on the second swim. This resulted in some sketchy exit procedures that I wouldn't ever want to repeat. Luckily, another crew found his boat a day later and he was able to hike in and get it out. Talk about good luck.
