Snacks & shade. Continuously. Make sure the PFD fits really well watch for rub/rash marks. Again continuously.

 

Snacks & winter layers....was there in early May and had snow on the rims, driving rain and wind for first 3 days, then sunshine and t-shirt/shorts weather; watch for signs of dehydration irritability, lack of urine output, etc.

 

Is this his first trip? Hopefully there will be a couple other kids he can interact with on the water and at camp. My youngest went at that age but also had an older sister so was always a lot of fun. Enjoy

 

I have a tip for the adults but May 7 is probably a little early and maybe muddy; which is, mask, snorkel and maybe fins. Some of the eddies at some camps are large and it might be interesting to find out what you might see. I haven't done it yet but look forward to it. Probably won't see sharks or corals but maybe big fish and other interesting stuff.

 

Insect repellant!

 

I would suggest bringing a couple of different PFDs if you can, to minimize chafing in the same spots, lots of good quality lotion, and lots of beach breaks to stretch and explore

 

There are a lot of catfish that love to be caught by kids with very little and cheap fishing gear. Stick, bobber, small split shot, line and a hook with a little summer sausage on it. Mash the barb down so they are easy to release for the kids

 

Totally agree with all comments - snacks, shade (bimini, sun hats, sun shirts/rash guards, sun glasses with croakies, and huge amounts of sun screen), water in abundance, but also good that you're doing it in 7-8 days. Breaking up the trip will make it more enjoyable. With our kids, parsing out surprises/treats over time helps keep them going to the next surprise or treat. When our kids were smaller and still napping, having spots where the kids can crash out for afternoon naps in the shade of a bimini was a good thing.

 

All great tips here. It's a great trip for kids and ours never got bored. Most kids are mesmerized by being able to play in the sand next to the water and a few extra toys (shovel, bucket, squirt gun) make it even better. Ours loved to squirt at the bugs - which there can unfortunately be a lot of sometimes. Depending on your level of experience in rapids, don't hesitate to have somebody walk the kid through some of them if you're unsure. Have fun!

 

Firm echo on the chin chaffing problem with PFDs for the little ones. Before our kids graduated to better fitting PFDs we sewed soft fleece patches on the upper part of the front of their PFDs to prevent the dreaded chin chaff. A sarong or two is nice to have to cover them from bugs, sun, chilly breeze etc. Snacks, snacks, snacks. Bring more than you think you need, especially if there are other kids on the trip, as you will be sharing. We have a sand toy bag (others use a bucket with gamma lid) that is rigged on top so it can be immediately deployed at lunch stops and when you hit camp. Contents of sand toy bag: a couple of small garden trowels, a couple of small buckets, small balls (golf ball or little rubber balls) for sand trail luges, a few cars and trucks, a few little squirt guns, some toy boats and a few large fish tank nets. It is also nice to have a bunch of books at the ready that you can read to them for distraction on long days or to help facilitate napping.

As adults, it is easy for us to balance a slippery plate on our legs to eat, not so much with the little ones. They will drop their meal on the ground faster than you can say.... and then the tears are flowing. We used their little compartment lunch boxes to serve their meals to them, or we just fed them from our plate.

And they must wear their PFDs anytime they are near the waters edge. No matter what.

 

I hate to be Eeyore in a group of Buzzards, but high water Deso with a 3 year old is too high a pucker factor for me. I started taking my kids at 5 years old on low water Deso trips, but I want them to be able to swim, reliably respond to urgent prompts, and ideally, help in self rescue if things get dicey. I still walk them around Joe Hutch until they are strong enough to hold on tight if we get turned sideways through a hole.
I second everything that was said above about preparation, hydration, etc. Prepare for heat and cold at that time of year.

 

The advantage of this date is the water should be coming up and miss the bulk of bugs. I found high water (25k) to be very forgiving and not pushy at all. The water is definitely cold and possibly the air as well.

 

Current snowpack and conditions (yes, big storm today/tomorrow, no, not a game-changer, likely a blip) unfortunately means "high water Deso" likely to be in the 8-10k range, not teens or 20's... You may be lucky enough to hit exactly this peak as everything about this "winter" has more resembled Spring, and if so, it's a beautiful level. 3 year old shoud revel if weather cooperates, if you get a front (or two) just point out the changes, tarp up, and keep warm&entertained. As long as water going up bugs are negligible, it's when it's dropping and there's pools for hatching they come out... shouldn't be an issue in early May.

Above all, ENJOY.

 

Current snowpack and conditions (yes, big storm today/tomorrow, no, not a game-changer, likely a blip) unfortunately means "high water Deso" likely to be in the 8-10k range, not teens or 20's...

Above all, ENJOY.

Ditto, is a fabulous trip for youngins, plenty to do plenty to keep them entertained, there's nothing on deso at any water level which is all that daunting, in my opinion, possibly wire fence and rattlesnake, you can walk around where fence, but you should camp there anyway, and rattlesnake is what it is, pick a good line to the left stick with it and you'll be fine

 

Taking our son who will be 22 months down in June. He will walk all the bigger rapids and already has a few multi days under his belt. Should be interesting.

 

I would not hesitate to take a kid who's almost 2 years old down, don't make him walk the rapids, it's deso!

 

Please make your own decisions concerning what you feel safe doing with your children.

 

Jim Bob, You have gotten excellent descriptions of the lines. However, Deso is not Ruby Horsethief and mistakes can be made. On Deso, there are true class III's that can flip a boat and a turbulent river is no place for a swimming 22 month old youngster.

Until you have run Deso enough times to feel as confident as some people above I suggest being prudent and making your own decisions. That brings up the question of whether the walks are harder than successful runs, the answer is yes.

 

First Deso trip we did was in June, the mosquitoes were epic. I will never run Deso in June again. Early season - May is not prime family time for Deso. You won't have bugs, but the water will be cold and swimming/water play is not really in the cards. With a three year old (or two), I would be concerned about wind on the water. Maybe fashion some type of shelter?

 

Ditto on the Bears. We where on a layover at Opposite McPherson Ranch and where down sitting in the boats enjoying the day when this fairly large bear appeared about 25 feet from us standing on a downed large tree. He was probably 7 feet tall standing on his rear legs. We started making noises to run him off and he just sat down and looked at us. No aggression he was actually pretty laid back. Finally a couple blasts from the air horn and he got up an slowly strolled off. A couple of the kids (young adults) went to their tent and came back to get us. They had set their tent up right in his trail and he just walked right through their tent tearing open both sides it went through. Didn't touch anything in the tent just walked right through it. To say the least it was a pretty sleepless night for everyone but all turned out good. A neat experience too.

 

It's cool to see a bear, but I'm sad that they're becoming acclimated to boaters

 

Powdered pedialyte!

A Dehydrated and sunburned toddler will suck for everyone.

Good luck, I'm weighing out brining my 2.5yr old down deso in June. Or going solo dad style (bringing pedialyte either way )

 

We saw a bear night 1 of an early August Deso trip two years ago. We were camped on a sandbar beach to escape the mosquitoes. The bear came right down to the sandbar about 100 yards from us, but mostly minded his or her own business.

 

Be ready for wind like you’ve never seen before. I actually got blown back through a rapid. Hindsight if we hadn’t had to meet the shuttle we would have sat that day out. It was miserable and the kids hated it. Plan for wind day entertainment! Other than that my kids loved it. Mud boots and pants for sun protection. Sunglasses for eye protection, too.

 

Oh man, that WIND. We did a May Deso trip last year and had two days of 70+ mph gusts (no joke). Every single thing at camp had to be tied down or it was gone immediately. Tenters had to take their tents down during the day, so that the poles didn't snap. I just slept outside on my paco downwind of a big bush. You had to yell to speak to someone standing right in front of you. Water was spraying onto shore 30+ yards from the river. Luckily, we knew it was coming and did a layover. We felt really bad for anyone we saw attempting to float by, especially after their look of disappointment seeing that the camp was occupied and they would have to keep going.

This was during a lull:

 

I've never ran it but allways here its the intro to whitewater trips but am I being overly cautious to think its safe for a kid that can't swim? I have a seven year old that doesn't swim very well snd that would make me a bit nervous but iam asking sincerely not bad mouthing anyone.

 

There aren’t several viable class IIi rapids with the potential to bump out passengers and flip boats. Would agree about it being an introductory trip to whitewater for new rowers or new passengers with experienced rowers. Wouldn’t mix the two. As a decently experienced tower, I would not personally take anyone down several of the rapids in Deso if they couldn’t self care if they became a spontaneous swimmer.

 

Deso is like a long test with lots of trick questions with an essay section. It is hard if you do not have experience with that type of test and it is a lot easier if you have help taking it.

Also, before even taking the test there should be the questions of do you have the right gear and experience. For example, I only own catarafts hence I'd say I DO NOT have the right gear to take a 22 month old youngster down any river much less Deso. Just my opinion.

Deso is not hard but it is not easy either. It is magnitudes harder than Ruby Horsethief. Substantially harder than the San Juan. Much harder than Cisco to Moab. And harder than the Upper Colorado. I suggest doing all of these rivers as 3-day and longer trips before trying Deso. Again, just a suggestion.

However, Deso is a good early-on learning river in the company of an experienced group, especially if you can follow qualified boatman with good river reading skills or that know the lines. With an experienced group a lot of the trick questions dealing with logistics and campsites and river reading become moot.

As several have stated, Deso has rapids that can flip a boat and when they are most likely to flip a boat the resulting swim is likely to be long, difficult and very cold. The rapids tend not to be pool drop. If you have a non-swimmer you can't put them in the situation of a flip and swim. Several previous respondents likely have the experience to eliminate the possibility of a flip on Deso. Or so they say. But what we are talking about is a possibility that will haunt you for the rest of your life and potentially shorten someone else's life completely.

Boating always will have risks. For most boaters the objective is to measure and mitigate the risks as much as reasonably possible. Please be on the safe side when risking someone else's life.

 

Most incidents for big and small folks happen on shore, keep this in mind when walking around rapids, especially Joe Hutch, very rocky terrain in places

Another factor in trip planning and incident mitigation is the remoteness of Deso; yes there are others on the river, but know that advanced emergency care can be hours, maybe days away

Deso is magnificent in its desert and flowing waters....plan ahead, be informed, mitigate risks and have a wonderful experience

 

Good points, all. I've been on many Deso trips where we have never seen another soul for 5 to 7 days.. One of those inreach thingies might be just the ticket for peace of mind.