Gila Box Riparian National Conservation Area
April 5, 2024 - Friday
Bones and I left moms house and drove to Safford , AZ to meet with some friends to paddle the Gila River through the Gila Box Riparian National Conservation Area.
From Tucson we traveled east on Interstate 10 and just had to stop at The Thing to use the restroom.
Bones thinks that The Thing might be a distant relative of his. I’m not too sure about that. He wasn’t to happy that we didn’t spend the money to take the tour and see The Thing. But he was happy that we’re going canoeing. It seems like it’s been forever since we were on the water.
It’s spring in Arizona and the wild flowers are really blooming. Bones was getting a ansee so we stopped at the turn off to go to Safford so he could run through the flowers. I think spring is his favorite season.
Once we met up with everyone we drove over Dry Canyon boat take out point to leave some vehicles and transfer our gear to the vehicles that we are taking to the campground and put in. While we were there we checked the river. It’s flowing around 900 cubic feet per second and should make for some fun paddling.
Then we drove for about 45 minutes to Owl Creek campground for the night.
There is a front coming in today. The forecast said that there is a front coming in today and the temperature was going to drop to the high 30’s. It also said that the wind would be around 28 miles per hour and that there was a good chance that it would rain tonight.
We definitely felt the wind blowing today and the temperature starting dropping after sunset. Then around 7pm it started sprinkling.
We helped each other setting up our tent in the wind and were ready for the rain. It’s an interesting start to a trip.
Tomorrow we will put in at the bridge just below the campground.