Treasure Canyon of the Alamosa River
Treasure Canyon is a remote 5 mile Class V run on the Alamosa River in Colorado's 'Pagosa Zone'. It is a long, tiring day filled with logs, 2 death drops to portage and sieves- This requires a lot of energy to scout and get around hazards safely, especially on your first run. It's totally worth it! Treasure is an quality run in a beautiful alpine setting wit several quality class 5 drops. Unlike most Colorado class V runs, Treasure is a full day on the water, not just a short roadside run. Photo: looking downstream from the put in- The river is in a canyon in the 'v' and goes behind the mountain on the left. The road is on the other side of that mountain. This blog post contains media from 2 different runs. Photos are from a Saturday June 9 run with Chris Larsen, Chris Menges and Michael from Crested Butte and the Video is from a Tuesday June 12 run with Lawrence Simpson, Mike Haggadorn and friends. Chris Larsen warms up on the low volume entry ledge (above) and on Boner falls (below). This is just below the put in. Note the low volume at this point... It definitely increases.

Photography by Chris Larsen and Chris Menges.

Chris Menges, Boner Falls (above and below). From lcskayak.blogspot.com: "Treasure Canyon is a relatively new run as it was only discovered in 2004/05 and hasn't been run much since. This could be partially due to its remoteness and just the whole unknown factor that it brings. It feels like your running a First D even though you know its been done before." Check out the video from Lawrence's trip. Principle videography and editing by Lawrence Simpson. As you progress downstream into the gorge, the water definitely picks up plenty of volume. Quality drops and some portaging follow. Twizzler is the quintessential Treasure drop with a slightly tricky lead in (see video) As you can see in the picture (above) the river picks up a substantial amount of volume. Chris Larsen runs Twizzler almost perfectly, but with a slight piton into the protruding river right wall in the landing zone. Larsen's legs and ankles felt fine but his boat got a nice little shiner. This shot gives an idea of the random in between boogie water and the amount of volume to expect there (a nice amount). Colorado scenery = contrast.

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