Whitewater rafting · three rivers · one gauge
Skip the controls to the river profileThe river decides.
The same rapid is a splash at 600 cfs and a wall of water at 3,000. Set the gauge: every rapid, every trip, who may ride and the colour of this page follow it.
cfs means cubic feet per second: how much water passes a point each second. A bathtub is about 8 cubic feet.
Who is coming?
about 54 kg
- Elk ForkGood water · hardest rapid IIYour group can ride it.
- Granite RunGood water · hardest rapid III+Your group can ride it.
- Black NarrowsGood water · hardest rapid III+Not for this group: The youngest rider must be 16 or older (you said 14).
3,800 ft at the put-in, 3,500 ft at the take-out: 300 ft of fall in 12 miles. Heights are drawn 66× taller than miles, so the river looks steeper than it is. Circle area grows with the class of each rapid; the zigzag is its whitewater.
Class I easy · II novice · III intermediate · IV advanced · V expert. A + means harder than the number. What the classes mean. A * on a circle or (cap) in a table means the formula gives more than V+ and the model stops there.
The rapids as a table
| Rapid | Mile | Drop | Class here | Class at 1,200 cfs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Warm-up | 1 | 6 ft | II | II |
| Pinball | 4.5 | 15 ft | III | III |
| Dentist's Chair | 8 | 20 ft | III+ | III+ |
| Washboard | 10.5 | 8 ft | II | II |
Three rivers
Family float
Elk Fork
Wide, forgiving water with three small rapids and long pools for swimming.
Classic day
Granite Run
Steady rapids between granite walls: big enough to wake you up, short enough to talk about at lunch.
Expert only
Black Narrows
A steep, pushy gorge. You must have paddled class III before; the guides will check.
When to go
Rivers rise with the snowmelt and fall by late summer. Each month below is that river's typical flow; press one to set the gauge to it.
Elk Fork
Granite Run
Black Narrows
G good water · P pushy, big water · L too low, no trips · X too high, closed. Typical flows, not a forecast. Press a month to set the gauge; the arrow keys move between months.
How we decide
We close a river when it is too high or too low to run well, and we limit who may ride by the hardest rapid at that level, not just by age. The class of each rapid at each level comes from one formula that you can read on the About page. Read Safety before you ask for a trip.