I've been paddling the Green River Gorge since the late 1980's.  My first trip was on a Washington Kayak Club trip led by Beth Blattenberger and Bob Flagen.  Leading down the river, they explained and deftly demonstrated the lines through the rapids to the group.  Washing onto the big rock on the left at the bottom Coal Car was entirely my error.  The lines through Coal Car have remained the same the past thirty plus years.   The rapid immediately below has changed dramatically.   Changes both subtle and dramatic are inherent during our paddling careers.

The dramatic change of today's report is the large cliff failure at Big Wall Left.  A popular lunch/break spot, paddlers frequently stop on the cobble beach opposite the cliff.   Across the river, the green water sweeps under a large over-hung grotto.  Mosses and lichens mottle the sandstone. And lighter colors dapple the rock where small sandstone flakes have spalled off the cliff revealing a fresh rock surface.  An eddy in the grotto provides access to a small play wave frequently inhabited by a rotating menagerie of colorful kayakers.  The cliff continues sweeping downstream where it formerly used to end in another over-hung grotto that wrapped around the end of cliff.

In November 2022, we noticed that the end grotto had collapsed, hurtling down into the pool below, the roof  retreating a  dozen feet up the cliff.  I suppose a few surprised fish, eyes wide open, frantically scurried away.  A large block of sandstone, capped with mosses and small trees now emerged from the surface of the pool where before no rock existed.

Initially, additional rock falls where fairly frequent.  The first boulder was soon crushed under the debris of additional cliff failures.

The rate of change has slowed  recently.