Kenny Ross was one hell of a man – short in stature, wiry, with muscular arms wrapped in bulging veins and leathery hands.  He looked like he was made of tightly strung steel wire.  Ross was intense and determined, and with the look in his eyes, offering signs of the high voltage that ran through his wires.  One of the earliest river runners in the West, Kenny didn’t just boat the river – he was the river, and he dedicated his life to the history and archeology of the American southwest.

In 1933, Chief Forester and Senior Naturalist of the National Park Service, Ansel Hall, organized the Rainbow Bridge-Monument Valley Expeditions, a series of exploratory and mapping trips through the Four Corners region that took place over several years.  As part of these expeditions, Ross worked on the first official reconnaissance of the San Juan River and lower part of Glen Canyon.  Following these trips, Ross gained employment at Mesa Verde National Park through the Civilian Conservation Corps and began a lifelong work in service to the archaeology of the Four Corners region.  His mark on the park continues today, as he helped build many of the dioramas that are still on display at the Chapin Mesa museum.

For Ross, archaeology was a passion and a career, but the river always called him.  After twelve years as one of Mesa Verde’s first rangers, Ross joined Ansel Hall’s Explorer’s Camp in 1946 (a private enterprise aimed at training young naturalists in remote places.). As the camp manager and lead guide, Ross led numerous canyon hikes and river trips down the San Juan River, Cataract Canyon, and Glen Canyon.  In 1950, he bought out Halls’ interests in the equipment, vehicles, and boats and started Southwest Explorations, a young focused outfitted business that also offered trips for adults.  Finding success in commercial river running, Ross established Wild Rivers Expeditions in1957 and staked his claim on the territory of the San Juan River and lower Glen Canyon as one of the earliest outfitters in the West.