Is it possible to cross the US lengthwise by boat?

You could get from the East coast to New Orleans via the Great Lakes and Mississippi River.

On the west coast, there are waterways that connect Colorado to California. But I don’t think you take take a boat on them.

Google: "Continental Divide"

mule named Sal wrote:

You could get from the East coast to New Orleans via the Great Lakes and Mississippi River.

On the west coast, there are waterways that connect Colorado to California. But I don’t think you take take a boat on them.

I want to know what's physically possible, not what is allowed. Assume all the cops, forest rangers, and river patrolmen are asleep for a couple weeks.

Google: "Intermediate Value Theorem"

oarsman wrote:

mule named Sal wrote:

You could get from the East coast to New Orleans via the Great Lakes and Mississippi River.

On the west coast, there are waterways that connect Colorado to California. But I don’t think you take take a boat on them.

I want to know what's physically possible, not what is allowed. Assume all the cops, forest rangers, and river patrolmen are asleep for a couple weeks.

There are plenty of examples of "almost" but none of them will get you up to, and certainly not, other the continental divide.

Think about it, upstream in the Rocky Mountains. Emphasis on UP and STREAM.

Theoretically it could be done. There are some diversions in the upper Rocky Mountains that transfer water from the West Slope to the East Slope via manmade water projects. There is an impoundment on the upper Poudre River (part of the Platte Drainage) called Long Draw Reservoir that gets water from the west slope via the Grand Ditch which captures water from the headwaters of a number of creeks in Rocky Mountain National Park.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Ditch

That would get you across the continental divide in water (now it is worth noting that the upper portion of these rivers aren't exactly navigable). There would still be a myriad of diversions, waterfalls and dams that you would have to portage around along the way, but if you were to do the research, you could make it happen. Just make sure to do the research (don't be an idiot like Chris McCandless and end up dying because you didn't research what you were doing). The Colorado River doesn't really even hit the ocean anymore certain times of year and gets lost in a maze of diversions in Mexico.

Air boat is the ticket.

Vancomycin wrote:

Google: "Continental Divide"

This ^

i just made a route that should be do-able in a canoe (because of some very small creeks).

the obvious way to start from the east is to get into the great lakes. the main inlet for them is the st. lawrence river, but since the start of it at the atlantic ocean is in canada, that is cheating. instead i went to nyc and went up to albany via the hudson. once you get up to albany you can head west on man made canals directly to lake ontario. however, once you get into lake ontario you are on the bottom of the niagara falls so i backtracked and found another way. in pheonix, NY, the oswego river splits at the "three rivers point" with the north one going to the lake and the south one becoming the seneca river. if we keep following that river, through cross lake and just north of black lake (in Montezuma. NY) we can get to Rochester, NY. once we get there we can follow the same path and cross the genesee river perpendicularly (even though the river on the other side is genesee river on google maps too?). we can then follow that river (past brockport, NY) to the mouth of that river in Tonawanda, NY just 11 miles upstream of niagara falls. once we get there we can follow originally planed route through lake erie - to lake hudson and then i chose to go into lake michigan instead of lake superior so i can get into chicago. once we are in chicago we can go through the "illinois and michigan canal" which gets us to the illinois river. that river will then get us to the mississipi river just north of st louis (38.968823, - 90.468578). once were in the mississippi river i go down 20ish miles and go up the missouri river. i follow it to kansas city and then keep going north (i was orginially going to switch to the platte river in kansas city and go west but i found that it turns into a mess of 10-20 different creeks in northern colorado so that one is useless.). so i follow the missouri river, up through lake sakakawea and continued following it until i took a gamble at 47.978563, -103.984491 going south on the yellowstone river since i traced the missouri farther up and was getting a little scared of me ending up in canada. so i follow the yellowstone past Myers, Montana and Emigrant, Montana. i tried to get into yellowstone lake but the upper falls of yellowstone lake screwed me over (look up google images). so i went back a few miles and tried lamar river but that leads to a dead end father east in the mountains. i found that Gardiner, Montana had the mouth of gardiner river so i went all the way back up north and then went down gardiner river (ended in dead ends). turns out the yellowstone river is only feasible if you can climb a 108 foot waterfall just north of yellowstone lake. so i went all the way back to the missouri river and kept following it evenutally going through canyon ferry lake and ennis lake (missouri river turns into madison river at missouri headwaters state park). via the madison river i can get into earthquake lake and then hebgen lake. i tried to get into henrys lake in idaho but there were mountains blocking all the creeks i tried so i had to keep following the madison south east. at national park mountain i turned south into firehole river passing old faithful. the farthest i ever got with firehole river was madison lake just west of shoshone lake which is just west of yellowstone lake.

im gonna look back and update if i find something else

malmo wrote:

There are plenty of examples of "almost" but none of them will get you up to, and certainly not, other the continental divide.

Think about it, upstream in the Rocky Mountains. Emphasis on UP and STREAM.

maybe bypass the rockys completely? they end at the top of new mexico so maybe it would be possible to go along the border? the rio grande starts going up in el paso though so would have to find a river through a desert which is not easy.

Well since you only asked whats possible. You could just buy an airboat (you know the ones with the big fans on the back). You wouldn't even need to use a water way. The interstate would work just fine (remember all police and such are asleep for a few weeks). I would still make sure I had some sort of gas in reserve when I hit those long stretches of "no gas stations for xx miles".

map maker wrote:

malmo wrote:

There are plenty of examples of "almost" but none of them will get you up to, and certainly not, other the continental divide.

Think about it, upstream in the Rocky Mountains. Emphasis on UP and STREAM.

maybe bypass the rockys completely? they end at the top of new mexico so maybe it would be possible to go along the border? the rio grande starts going up in el paso though so would have to find a river through a desert which is not easy.

The best I can find going up the Rio Grande Basin is the Weminuche Pass Ditch in the Weminuche Wilderness between Pagosa Springs and Creede. That would spit you into the San Juan basin that would take you down to Navajo Reservoir and into Lake Powell (which is lovely). So in answer to the OP, there are a number of routes due to water transfer projects that move water from the east slope to the west slope (you'd probably want something light and portable that is easily carried like an inflatable kayak because you will eventually hit terrain and dams that you will need to portage around). Here is a list of water transfers in Colorado that would serve your purpose:

I originally thought of the Grand Ditch because I have been on pretty much every trail in Rocky Mountain National Park, but there are 27 diversion projects that straddle the divide in Colorado (most of which are tunnels, but there are a couple manmade ditches that do as well.

The easy answer is no.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watersheds_of_North_America

theoretically we can use my same route to the Mississippi river then go down new orleans then into the rio grande via the coast in the gulf of mexico. that still wouldn't be cheating as we would be in us territory on the coast. (would be same equivalent of being in any of the great lakes as the other side is another country)

interesting stuff guys. fun

map maker wrote:

theoretically we can use my same route to the Mississippi river then go down new orleans then into the rio grande via the coast in the gulf of mexico. that still wouldn't be cheating as we would be in us territory on the coast. (would be same equivalent of being in any of the great lakes as the other side is another country)

i've just used the route i mentioned in my previous post and went into the gulf of mexico and then followed the rio grande after it went north in el paso. i turned west onto the rio chama river and then into the abiquiu reservoir and continuing on. the rio chama splits off into two forks (west & east) at 37.091707, -106.550969. the west fork ends on banded peak and the east fork ends in the dipping lakes. so the rio chama route is over. i'm seeing a decently sized lake to the west of it in the navajo lake state park, maybe that has some potentional? we need to stay south or we will get caught up in the rockys.

To me it's against the spirit of the question to route through the bodies of water that form the USA borders.

If you disagree, there's no need for the Hudson > Erie Canal > Lake Ontario > Welland Canal > Lake Erie > Detroit River > St. Clair River/lake> Lake Huron > Mackinac Strait > Lake Michigan > Illinois Waterway > Mississippi > Gulf > Rio Grande route.

Just go Atlantic > Gulf > Rio Grande.

map maker wrote:

the rio grande starts going up in el paso though so would have to find a river through a desert which is not easy.

Hey dork, guess where the headwaters of pretty much ANY river in the western US is?

Yeah, that rio grande route will steer you right back into the rockies.

Kind of depends on your rules, but Verlen Kruger did it in a canoe.

https://www.knau.org/post/upriver