Camping at the Colorado River

I have been going camping at Picacho State Park on the California side of the Colorado River for a few years now with my boss and others from work. It is a great place but you have to drive over an 18 mile dirt road from the I-8 near the border of Arizona to get there. This weekend I went with Blayne, Julie, Rosie, Wendy & Jim.


Normally we ride in Blayne's boat that he keeps in storage here, but Jim brought his new ski boat. He was eager to get his boat in the water and we took Blayne for a pull on his single ski. This water is great for skiing because the river flow keeps the chop down and you can get some very glassy conditions. Blayne can really get some deep carves.


This river's sand banks shift all time and sometimes they are in different spots each time we come. We were pulling Blayne far upriver and we hit a shallow sand bar going about 30 miles an hour. We came to a pretty abrupt stop and Blayne almost ran into the back of the boat. We were stuck pretty good in about a foot of water. Normally it is fairly easy to push the boat off into deeper water but this time it took about 10 people and a ranger boat to help pull us off the sand.


The days at the river are so relaxing and fun. We set up a spot on a sand bar and spend the day relaxing in the sun and taking turns on the boat, skiing, wakeboarding or getting pulled on innertubes. It is fun as well to get dropped off up river and have a nice float back down on inflatable rafts with a couple of beers.


As the sun starts to set, we go back to our camping spot and eat dinner, drink and chat around the fire. Each trip, we also have a night hike up to the arch.