On this Memorial Day, our thoughts turned to those who are gone but not forgotten. Standing out most in my mind were memories with my parents, who taught my brothers and me about camping and boating in this area more than forty years ago.

In those days you could go the local theatre to see a John Wayne movie one night, then drive out here and walk around the movie set the next day.

These days there are many more people engaged in many more types of activities including climbing, mountain and road biking, horse-back riding, four-wheeling and hiking in addition to the river-related fun. While it is more difficult to find solitude, I applaud the federal, state and local agencies for keeping the area accessible and almost all the visitors who keep it from getting trashed.

For the second consecutive day, our departure time was 10:30 am. There was a crew of eleven of us including Robin, Dave, Derek, Holly, Carl, Alley, Stephanie, Tamara, Frank and Nancy on two oar rafts and one inflatable kayak.

We cruised through several class two rapids during a twelve mile stretch before arriving at 2:45 pm at Takeout Beach, the first of today’s two choices to disembark.

As the afternoon upstream wind grew in strength, eight opted to leave.

Armed with a steely determination, some cold drinks and sunscreen, Nancy, Carl and I set off in one raft to cover the ten miles downstream to Moab. We maintained good speed for a mile or two until the wind became so strong that it was almost impossible to maintain our place relative to the shoreline.

About that time, Carl and I rigged a rocket box (which is truly a metal box the Army uses to keep rockets dry) on a rope, tied it to the front of the boat and threw it overboard. It worked like an underwater “sail” and, as long as we kept the boat in the current, the river’s power was more than the wind could handle.

In this fashion, we inched our way along, marveling at the formations, colors and textures of the vertical rock walls rising hundreds of feet above us.

While I’ll probably never completely get over losing my parents, I felt extremely fortunate to share this most memorable of Memorial Days with family and friends who took the time to travel from places like New York, Chicago, Tucson and of course, Colorado.

As we expected, the Moab boat ramp appeared like a vision at just before 6 pm. Tired, sweaty, but with a sense of accomplishment we stepped off the raft and cheered as Rex met us.

Another day done and a long-overdue shower is in the near-term plan for me. My only regret was missing friends Susan, Charlie, Carly, Mogli and Coop who, mostly due to poor communication on my part, were in the area but unable to connect with us.