Kayaking Utah’s Natural Lazy River

Every now and again you find yourself paddling a river not because it's some wild adventure, rather because of its simplicity. I found the Christmas Meadows way up in an alpine region that's known for hiking. I figured what the heck, surely this river is worth kayaking. The tranquil meander of the stream kind of reminded me of Lazy River and that's exactly the pace I needed. The previous day I'd gone on a pretty extreme adventure, I don't know if my body could handle another day like that. Right here in the Christmas Meadows campground. Get ready for a day trip. All right, this is gonna be a prime example of taking the river. Look at this parking lot, totally full. I guarantee you we won't see another person on the river. Once again, we're back in bear and moose country. Hey bear. Here we go. Wow, what a spot. I launched into the abyss hoping the only surprises we'd have were stunning views and maybe a cool place to take a break. And based on this first section, I think we're in for quite a treat today. This is beautiful. Oh yeah, bumping and grinding. We got some skinny water today. Although I'd mentioned skinny water, Utah actually had a record snowfall year, which is what drives flow rates in these rivers and creeks. So it gave me some unfound confidence. I kind of figured it might be a once in a lifetime opportunity to get on some smaller water that might be too low normally to paddle during the summer. You can see the peaks up there. So one of the things I'm concerned about in this particular river are down trees just below a rapid that you can't see. Just like that, stuff like this. Pretty serious cut bank here. So we're gonna take the inside line. Yes, we are going so fast. Oh, that is a beautiful log cabin. Wow. Look at that in the back. Beautiful. Oh, see, there's a root ball. All right, Stillwater River, Christmas meadows. Pretty neat. Gosh, this is so pretty. Wildflowers, snowy peaks. We are officially leaving what I would call the upper section, which winds through the trees, and we're descending into Christmas meadows proper. Man, is it awesome. This is so amazing. And it's kind of laughable that the only people I saw all day just happened to waltz in after I set up my camera to get a beautiful shot looking up the mountains in the river. I'm glad they're just outdoors experiencing the wild and trying to catch some fish. I've kind of come to the realization that it would be dangerous for my gas budget to live in a place like Salt Lake City or Utah just because I would be putting so many miles on my car going to all these spots. I mean, this is literally just like a Saturday hangout for a lot of people that live in Salt Lake. That blows my mind. This is just a pristine high alpine river. Huge thanks to Remote Designs for helping us get our gear to wild places like this, keeping it dry and safe because that's what it's all about. You can also kick back in the current. Don't always have to just bounce around in the eddy. Beautiful though. Oh my gosh. Everything's so green up here. So cool. Golly, the views just explode wide open. This Christmas meadows portion is also pretty unique because it's not hard to paddle upstream. So you can kind of constantly paddle upstream, float down, paddle up and really spend a lot of time in the places you want to most. I had to savor it. We're about to leave the meadows and do a little bit of swift water. Tree fall or a beaver dam. So peaceful. Oh, this is serious. Heck yeah. That was awesome. I wish I could keep going. This river blasts through Utah into Wyoming, but we need to go hike to the car. At least we're walking towards the mountains, which is a nice view. The Stillwater River was a win. It was so brilliant and the perfect place for a solo day paddle, especially one that was more of a recovery paddle. I also find this to be the perfect example of why not every adventure needs to be crazy. In fact, most of them should be pretty chill because that's why we're getting outside to experience new places and just enjoy what we're doing. I'll catch y'all in the next one.