I am director of SierraRios and an avid kayaker, rafter, explorer, activist, and guide. My exploratory career started in 2000 and resulted in me paddling/documenting nearly every river in Mexico (including 107 first descents entailing ~8000 km of river and >50,000 m of drop) over 11 years. In 2012, I discovered the most distant source of the Amazon (see AREA), paddled all the headwaters of the Amazon and then finished the journey to the Atlantic, making the first complete descent of the Amazon River from its most distant source (see C&K, book). My attention these days is mostly devoted to exploring, publicizing, bringing more visitation to, and protecting the remaining Grand Canyons of the world, such as those formed by the Nile, Yangtze, Salween, and Pilcomayo. I've published two guidebooks to rivers in Mexico and plan to write others that cover the rest of Mexico, Peru, and other regions. I've written many articles on various rivers. I realize what precious resources the free-flowing rivers are, and have witnessed their destruction. I founded SierraRios with the goal of protecting such precious rivers.

A few articles have been written about me:

American Whitewater (2007)
Kayak Session (2009)
Canoe & Kayak (2011)

History: I learned to kayak on the Russian and SF American Rivers in Northern California in the late 80s/early 90s. I started paddling extensively while an undergraduate at UC Davis and continued while pursuing a PhD in Neuroscience at UCSD (CV), at which time I also started guiding sea kayak and whitewater raft/kayak trips and instructing kayaking. While in San Diego, my main paddling was in the surf, sea kayaking in Baja, and on rivers in the Southwest. While pursuing a postdoc in Seattle from 2003-2008, I paddled most rivers of the Pacific Northwest. From 2000-2002 and 2008+, I generally have spent 3-6 months/year paddling, exploring rivers and leading trips in various parts of the world.

To raise more awareness of the beautiful rivers that I was discovering, I started regular guided trips in 2011 (currently these trips are run through Global Grand Canyons LLC). I guide the initial trips, publicize, set up all logistics and then train and employ guides to run later expeditions at these destnations. I currently offer trips on a number of rivers, including the Marañon, Usumacinta, BlueNile, Salween, Grande-Colorado, SanPedro-Grande, Pilcomayo, Lacanjá-Lacantún, and Mulatos-Aros. I also offer a special Upper Amazon guiding service.

To communicate with me, send an e-mail to (rocky@sierrarios.org)