Utah is very appropriate place to find fast water. In the San Juan Mountains, the Animas River snakes along the Utah-Arizona border before pouring into Lake Powell. The river also follows the northern border of the Navajo reservation and shares much of the worthy red-rock scenery.

Today a dozen of rafters float the river between April and Octomber and thousands of camera- clicking tourists shoot them. In April, the river was clocking along at 4, 600 cubic feet per second. This makes the river one of the greatest hits album of southern Utah’s attractions.

Years ago some of the river’s first visitors were trappers and Mormon missionaries. After them were the gold seekers. As many as 200 gold miners a day swooped in during the 1890s, but the river’s fine-grain gold was too hard to collect. A few years later, geological expeditions scouted the river for a good spot to dam. Hardly Times!

You can bring the kitchen sink on a raft trip, because there is so much time for cooking and eating. Days on the river are windy but warm, with temperatures in the 70s. The water is as cold as the Atlantic in early summer. At night in the desert, the temperature plummets; in April, nighttime lows can reach freezing.

A three-day trip with Wild Rivers Expeditions (101 Main Street; Bluff, Utah; 800-422-7654;) costs $686 for adults and $584 for children age 12 and under.