he San Juan River carves its way through a prehistoric landscape, with relics of its ancestral neighbors tucked along its banks and canyons. The San Juan River begins its nearly 400 mile journey high in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado and ends at its confluence with the Colorado River under Lake Powell. It is bordered to the south by the Navajo Nation and to the north by Cedar Mesa, Grand Gulch and Nokai Dome.
The San Juan River is floated recreationally under a permit system by private and commercial boaters, providing visitors access to spectacular canyons, unique desert flora and fauna, otherworldly geology, Ancestral Puebloan structures and internationally significant petroglyph panels. Launching from Sand Island near Bluff, visitors can enjoy incredible petroglyph panels, reconstructed Ancestral Puebloan ruins at River House and a passage through Comb Ridge while viewing herds of Desert Bighorn Sheep along the way. After passing Mexican Hat Rock, river runners can take out at the town of Mexican Hat or continue through the ever-narrowing and deepening river canyon, through gentle rapids to the take out at Clay Hills in the upper reaches of Lake Powell. Truly a world class river trip, other recreational favorites along the river include the meandering Goosenecks, the Honaker Trail and Slickhorn Canyon.
