Another notable feature of the canyons was the wildlife and the vegetation. Unlike the sagebrush flats upstream and the deserts downstream, these were mountain canyons, cut right through the heart of the Uintas. Ponderosa pines and willows fringed beaches of white sand; in the bigger bottoms stood stately old cottonwoods. There was no tamarisk. In a number of places, clear, cold mountain streams entered the main canyon, full of native trout. Big squawfish and humpback chub (both now almost extinct) lazed in the eddies. Other wildlife was plentiful, too. Buzz Holmstrom ran the canyons solo in 1937, and in 1938 came back with Amos Burg and ran all the rapids on both the Green and the Colorado (becoming the first to do so). He wrote: "Flaming Gorge, Horseshoe, and Kingfisher canyons were short and rapid-free, filled with sunshine and songs of countless birds, and with the call of geese and ducks high overhead. Many deer and beaver could be seen along the tree-lined shores." There were (besides kingfishers and other birds) deer, rabbits, marmots, bobcats, black bears, and an occasional cougar.