San Juan River - Sand Island to Mexican Hat

Located about 3 miles west of Bluff, UT on Highway 191.

From the town of Mexican Hat (don't blink or you might miss it), take a dirt road that leads to the river.  It's about a half mile long.

This rapid is mainly a series of waves.  Pretty straight forward

Read and run

8 foot rapid is probably the most difficult rapid between sand island and mexican hat.  As the river makes a hard 90 degree right hand turn there is a tooth like rock in the middle of the main flow.  If you hug the cliff river right close you could squeeze most craft between that rock and the cliff wall.  Most run this left of that rock and then pull left to avoid a large flat rock below the tooth rock.  Then its a matter of riding out the wave train.  This rapid gets easier

at really high water since some of the rocks will flush out and be covered.

Read and run

This rapid gets its name from a large ledge on river right that the current pushes against and then flows down.  Follow the flow down and pull away from the wall as you make the main drop and then ride the waves out.

Read and run

Several campsites exist at the put-in.  Some are single car access sites and some are for trailers and RV's.  Decent shade and many are near the river.

A nice sand beach on river right.  This is a great camp if you want to spend some time exploring the River House Ruin area.

This is a large beach with lots of camping options.  There is an excellent trail that leads from this camp over to the River House Ruin.

A nice camp with lots of room for a large party.  When we camped there last there were several wild horses (we think) roaming in the area.

Another large camp on river right