Colorado River

Section 8 - New Castle to Silt

Put in:

You have a choice of two places to put-in. The first is about a mile upstream of New Castle. It can be accessed only from the east bound lanes of I-70. Commercial rafting companies use this spot for their take-out even though there are no toilets. Exit I-70 at New Castle (exit 105), go south across the river, then head east about a half mile. Your second choice for a put-in is about 2 miles downstream.  Take exit 105 then go west. You will find a nice little park with toilet. You'll also find a nice picnic area and a cement boat ramp. Picture of this park is shown below.

Take out:

Exit I-70 at Silt and travel south to the river. Put-in is on the south-east corner of the bridge and river. There is a park with plenty of parking, port-a-pottie, and cement boat ramp.

Length:

• New Castle (upstream put-in) to Silt . . . .10.7 miles
• New Castle (downstream put-in) to Silt. . 7.1 miles
• Silt to Rifle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.2 miles
• Rifle to Rulison  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10 miles
• Rulison to Parachute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 miles
• Parachute to Una-Parachute Road . . . . .  5 miles
• Una-Parachute Rd to Debeque Take-out  7 miles

River Rating:

Class I/II (lots of class II)

Trip Sept 13, 2003 from New Castle to Rifle

Features:

• Topo map
• Streamflow for Colorado River below Glenwood Springs
• Upstream view from upstream New Castle Put-in
• Parking lot at upstream put-in (no toilets)
• Another view at the upstream put-in
• Heading downstream
• Pretty picture of this section
• Another pretty picture between the two put-ins
• The approach to the class II rapid just upstream on the downstream put-in
• The park at the downstream put-in
• The cement boat ramp at the downstream put-in
• Pretty river another view
• And another view
• An approaching storm