UTAH HAS SOME PRETTY WILD rivers. The kind that lure visitors with promises of excitement, then deliver moments of absolute terror. Rivers that will lull rafters into a meandering calmness, only to throw up a 10-foot roller on the next turn that'll toss a big boat like it was a shirt headed for the laundry . . . and turn resting hearts to racing hearts.
There's the Yampa and Cataract. Both have holes that'll play a perfect 10 on the nerve endings. "Warm Springs" on the Yampa and "Big Drop" on the Colorado through Cataract always rate look-sees by boatmen before running.Lodore and Desolation have their moments, and so do the San Juan and Green rivers.
None, though, is quite like Westwater near the Utah-Colorado border. It's a fast one-day or a restful two-day trip. About 12 miles of river, seven packed with white water. It's got calm and mixing-bowl madness to its waters. It has history and remoteness; at times a softness to its landscape, at other times a threatening intimidation.
The difference that has gone unnoticed until now, however, is that Westwater lies unprotected. It's open to anyone with a pick and shovel and marking stakes. All of the others are somewhat protected by national parks or monuments. Westwater isn't.
Equally unnoticed is the fact that with all these wild rivers, Utah is without claim to an officially recognized Wild and Scenic River. Wild rivers it has, yes, but no Wild and Scenic Rivers.
Which to some must mean that Utah has no rivers to run.
This despite the fact that it was on rivers in Utah that John Wesley Powell's men learned their left oars from their rights. And that it was in Utah that customers first got guided raft trips on wild and scenic rivers.
A recent article in USA Today showed a map where readers might find good rivers to run. The East Coast was filled in well, as was Idaho, Arizona, Colorado and California . . . but Utah was painted river-less.
The parting shot came in the very last paragraph, when a quick mention calls Desolation a good "training ground." Powell didn't find it that way. He met some of his more formidable rapids there.
Hopefully, that will change before the river running season has ended. En route to the Senate is Senate Bill 1719. It would, as introduced by Sen. Jake Garn, R-Utah, officially make Westwater a Wild and Scenic River. The bill passed through subcommittee and is headed for full-committee hearing. It will then go for full Senate approval.
Meanwhile, across the hall, Rep. Howard C. Nielson, R-Utah, is ready to begin pushing a companion bill.
The two will hopefully meet at the confluence (the White House) sometime this summer and there join as one to be signed and made law.
Actually, such a designation would mean little to those who run Westwater. According to Dee Holladay, owner of Holiday River Expeditions, the controlling agency, the Bureau of Land Management, realizing long ago that the river was worthy, has been managing it as if it were a Wild and Scenic River.
"This simply would," said Holladay, "assure that the river is protected.
"But it's something that is important to Utah. We polled all the outfitters that run Westwater. We had one that didn't respond, but all the others were totally for the bills."
Garn's original plan was to include Westwater into a pool of "Scenic Rivers," but after talking with some of the state's outfitters, recognized that the river deserved "Wild" status, too.
It's good to see Garn's feet are finally back on the ground and his eyes open to the wild and wonderful waters Utah has to offer. It's good, too, to see Nielson pick up a yoke and help pull for the cause. Both deserve the old "River Rat" initiation - a bucket of Colorado River water delivered with sincere appreciation.
For it is truly time that the world realizes what Powell learned way back in 1979: that Utah has some pretty Wild and Scenic Rivers.