Identity of body found in Colorado River still unknown

MOAB — Authorities were trying to identify a man who likely drowned in the Colorado River while floating through rapids on an inner tube.

Rafters encountered a man last Friday with a tube and a paddle at a boat ramp and warned him not to float that way. The stretch of river past the ramp has several rapids.

"They cautioned him that the river was really dangerous and he probably wouldn't make it through," Grand County sheriff's Sgt. Kim Neal said.

Rafters found a body Tuesday in Westwater Canyon, just beyond a stretch of rapids, Neal said.

An autopsy was not completed but the man apparently drowned, he said.

The man told rafters he came from a nearby town and was headed "to town." The closest town downstream is Moab.