Midmorning on the Dolores River, you could feel how recently the water had been snow. The white water was splashy and rolling without being scary, but it picked up speed as we headed downstream. We were in Colorado’s Ponderosa Gorge, along the line where the Rockies slip into the red edge of the desert. Sky-scraping pines sent off a dusty cinnamon smell, and there was a shock of new green growth on the red-rock cliffs. We were on a single-day trip with Mild2Wild Rafting, based in Durango, Colo., but from the launch where we pushed our rafts into the river, you can float for 173 miles, and 10-ish days, uninterrupted, until the Dolores, named the River of Sorrows by the Spanish explorers who came across it in 1776, runs into the Colorado River, right over the Utah state line.

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Persons: It’s, Samy, Dolores Locations: Dolores, Ponderosa, Durango, Colo, Colorado, Utah