BUENA VISTA — It has been nearly 100 years since a Colorado congressman convinced legislators to change the name of the Grand River originating in Rocky Mountain National Park to what we’ve since come to know as the Colorado River. That maneuver in 1921 may qualify as the greatest aquatic marketing ploy in history.
But while Colorado’s namesake river still tends to be the first that people associate with the Centennial State, it’s another waterway, named for another state entirely, that Colorado residents and visitors are likely more intimate with.
In many ways, the Arkansas River, originating from the snows of the Sawatch and Mosquito mountain ranges, qualifies as a mirror image of the Colorado. If the 1,450-mile Colorado is recognized as the principle river of the southwest United States, the Arkansas, flowing 1,469 miles southeast from the Continental Divide to its confluence with the Mississippi River, may very well serve as “America’s River,” especially right here at home.
When it comes to diversity of uses, the Arkansas truly is a jack-of-all-trades. The upper part of the Arkansas River has long been considered the most popular whitewater-rafting destination in America, annually attracting upward of 200,000 boaters from around the world to the 150-mile segment managed as a state park by the Arkansas Headwaters Recreation Association between Leadville and Cañon City. More than 100 miles of that stretch also have been designated as Gold Medal fishing water by Colorado Parks and Wildlife, earning recognition in consecutive CPW surveys as the most popular river in the state.
The series of reservoirs, ranging from Turquoise Lake, Twin Lakes and Clear Creek Reservoir along its headwaters to Pueblo and John Martin reservoirs on the Eastern Plains, provide countless recreational opportunities along with municipal, agricultural and industrial water supplies. And the drainage provides critical habitat to numerous species of wildlife, from deer, elk and bighorn sheep to eagles, ducks and wild turkeys.
Beyond the Colorado border, the river passes through Kansas, Oklahoma and Arkansas, drawing from a drainage basin of nearly 170,000 square miles as it stretches into the Huck Finn heartland as the second-longest tributary in the Mississippi-Missouri river system and the sixth-longest river in the U.S. With the aid of locks and dams, the Arkansas is navigable by barges and large river craft as far upstream as Muskogee, Okla.
Here at the headwaters, however, navigation is limited to much smaller vessels, and the whitewater raft is king.
“There’s a lot of talk that this is the most utilized stretch of whitewater in the world, and this country for sure,” said Bill Dvorak, whose Nathrop-based Dvorak Expeditions lays claim to the first official outfitter’s license issued by the state. “It depends a little bit on the water level. In years like this year, when we had high water, we don’t get so many people because people tend to shy away from it. But typically it’s a very busy place.”
The appeal is evident from the moment visitors arrive at the river’s mountain headwaters. Cascading 4,650 vertical feet in 150 miles as it courses past Colorado’s tallest mountains and through scenic gorges, the Arkansas packages its cool, clear water in diverse portions ranging from mild to wild. The most popular whitewater segments include Pine Creek/Numbers (Class IV/V), Browns Canyon (Class III/IV), Bighorn Sheep Canyon (Class II/III+) and the Royal Gorge (Class IV-), with several scenic calm-water sections in between. Four whitewater wave parks can be found in Buena Vista, Salida, Cañon City and Pueblo.
“It’s a really balanced river, where you have moderate and difficult sections on both ends of the state park,” said AHRA river ranger Stu Pappenfort, who has worked on the river for 38 years. “It’s great for the outfitters, where the river is able to fulfill almost any customer’s desires.”
Pappenfort credits the Arkansas’ success as a whitewater destination to a combination of natural assets, proximity to Colorado’s Front Range and roadside accessibility along much of the river corridor via U.S. 24/285 and U.S. 50.
“Another reason I think it’s so popular is that back in the early ’80s, when whitewater rafting really started to become a popular thing to do, there were upward of 70 outfitters all concentrated along the Arkansas and all advertising this river. So it was out there in the media,” Pappenfort said. “Back in the day before the Internet, I was the general manager of River Runners and we did sportsmen’s shows all throughout the Midwest, back East and even out West. We’d set up a booth and sign people up for trips right there.”
Upon arrival, few are disappointed.
“It’s spectacular. Even more beautiful than people have told me,” Bureau of Land Management director Neil Kornze, a Nevada native, said on his first whitewater rafting trip through Browns Canyon last weekend. “This is wonderful.”
Kornze was among a delegation, which included Gov. John Hickenlooper, U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet and Secretary of Interior Sally Jewell, that rafted the river as part of the formal dedication of the new Browns Canyon National Monument. The monument itself spans some 21,500 acres along the river corridor, but the vast majority of Browns Canyon visitors — about 100,000 per year — come exclusively for the river itself.
“It’s one of the only sections of the river where it leaves the roads for a good amount of time, so you get more of a backcountry, wilderness feel in there,” Pappenfort said. “There’s just great scenery with huge spires and rock formations, and at most levels other than really high water you can take the whole family through Browns and it suits everyone.”
The monument, and the surrounding AHRA, also offer outstanding opportunities for camping, fishing, picnicking, horseback riding, mountain biking, hiking and off-highway vehicle trails. It’s the sort of experience that the rest of America has come to expect of a visit to their favorite river.
“You come into this valley and see this beautiful river and the most continuous range of 14,000-foot mountains in the U.S. running up the west side,” Pappenfort said. “It’s pretty much quintessential Colorado.”
Scott Willoughby: swilloughby@denverpost.com or
