Tanner Rapid

Tanner Rapid stretched wide across the river, a sprawling maze of waves and channels that demanded our full attention as we approached. The river fanned out over a broad gravel bar, with scattered rocks breaking the surface and creating multiple tongues of swift current threading through the shallows. We lined up the dory toward a clean chute on the left side, where the water gathered speed and built into a series of fast-moving standing waves. As we dropped in, the bow lifted and fell rhythmically over the waves, each trough sending a cool splash across the deck. The dory flexed and rolled smoothly as we read the shifting water ahead, making quick strokes to weave between boils and eddies swirling off the rocks. The surrounding canyon walls rose in burnt reds and deep browns, framing the rapid with their towering layers and amplifying the rush and rumble of the water. Tanner had a wild, open feel — less about one single line and more about staying alert and reading the river as it unfolded in real time. By the time we slid into the calmer water below, we had earned that satisfying, breath-steadying moment of looking back upstream and tracing the path we’d just run.