Cataract Canyon — When Mike DeHoff began leading river trips in the early 1990s, there was little ambiguity about where the Colorado River ended and Lake Powell began.
DeHoff, who guided students on Outward Bound courses in southeastern Utah for over a decade, taught backcountry travel skills on the remote, winding flat water of the Green and Colorado rivers in Canyonlands National Park. Below the confluence of the two rivers, his students learned to navigate the challenging whitewater of Cataract, a series of 26 rapids culminating in the run’s three-part crux: the Big Drops...