Come float Desolation Canyon with author James M. Aton and photographer Dan Miller whose book, The River Knows Everything: Desolation Canyon and the Green will be released right before the trip. Aton, Miller, and other river interpreters will accompany guests on a five-day river trip exploring the canyon's geological, pre-history and historic past. You can expect evening discussions filled with historic tid-bits as well as hikes to natural bridges and ancient rock art sites.

Desolation Canyon is one of the West's wild treasures. Visitors come to study, explore, run the river, and hike a canyon that is deeper at its deepest than the Grand Canyon, better preserved than most of the Colorado River system, and full of eye-catching geology-castellated ridges, dramatic walls, slickrock formations, and lovely beaches. Rafting the river, one may see wild horses, blue herons, bighorn sheep, and possibly a black bear. Signs of previous people include the newsworthy, well-preserved Fremont Indian ruins along Range Creek and rock art panels of Nine Mile Canyon, both Desolation Canyon tributaries. Historic Utes also carved rock art, including images of graceful horses and lively locomotives, in the upper canyon. Remote and difficult to access, Desolation has a surprisingly lively history. Cattle and sheep herding, moonshine, prospecting, and hideaways brought a surprising number of settlers-ranchers, outlaws, and recluses-to the canyon.

"Aton practices his trade at a masterful level. His writing is clear, even elegant. Scholars in various disciplines will consult the book as a summary of knowledge; the prose is equally accessible to the river guide or backpacker interested in deepening his understanding of Desolation Canyon. The scholarship is fine, the writing is superb, and the topic is unique." -Gary Topping, author of Glen Canyon and the San Juan Country Desolation Canyon.