Whitewater Rafting Mile by Mile River Guide
Lower Klamath River Rafting Guided Trips
Upper Klamath River Rafting Guided Trips
River Description / Natural History
The following river description was derived primarily from Western Whitewater - From the Rockies to the Pacific by Cassady, J., Cross, B., & Calhoun, F. (1994), Berkeley, CA: North Fork Press. This book is an exceptionally well written and very thorough guide book covering rivers throughout the West. To order, please click here!
Mile 0 -The most popular place to access the river is at the Indian Creek River Access just below the bridge across Indian Creek and across the road from the Klamath Inn. The first four miles are a series of fun riffles and Class II rapids.
Mile 4 - Rattlesnake Rapid (III) is around a sharp left bend. There is a large hole in the center and boats usually go left. About a half-mile downstream is Devils Toenail (III), enter right and pull hard left to avoid a large midstream submerged boulder at the drop. Downstream is a series of Class II drops which include Mixmaster, Funnel, The Trench, Wingate, Sidecurler, Surfer's Alley, and Exterminator.
Mile 11 - Ferry Point Rapid (III) is just below the Ferry Point river access on river right. This rapid is followed by more Class II rapids and and Class II+ at Mile (13) at Thornton Memorial Bridge. This is also a river access on the left.
Mile 16.5 - Dragon's Tooth (IV) is the biggest rapid on this stretch and the difficulty and routes vary with the river flow. Scout right. At lower flows the right of the tooth is not runnable in a raft. Start by staying right of the island but hug left and enter chute within 2 feet to the left of the 'tooth', once past pull hard right to avoid possible large wrap rock on left. There are a couple of Class II rapids before Ukonom Creek.
Mile 18 - Ukonom Riffle, Class III, watch for a midstream reversal. Ukonom Creek is on the left and is a popular campsite and excellent side hike up the creek to the falls.
Mile 19 - is Coon Creek, a great campsite on river left and just below is a river access on the right. Past Coon Creek are Class II rapids and a mile down is Blue Swillup Rapid, Class III, stay left of the house size boulder.
The rest of the section to Persido Bar consists of mostly riffles and some Class II rapids. Persido Bar is on the left.
There are 11 more miles of generally mild rapids before Green Riffle River Access on the left. This is the last possible take-out before Ishi Pishi Falls (VI) which is 3.5 miles downstream.