East Fork Kaweah River (Lower)
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| | Raps:1-3, max ↨30ft
Red Tape:No permit required Shuttle:Optional 15min Vehicle:Passenger | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Condition Reports: | 26 Jul 2021
"Yet again there isnt a whole lot going on here. Only one of these slides could be called high quality. The others are very short and/or very low angl |
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| Best season: | July to Nov
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36.4636, -118.8291
36.4630, -118.8324
36.4790, -118.8394
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Introduction[edit]
A really fun short route through a fairly deep gorge in Three Rivers. If you're in the area to do Marble Fork or something, try not to skip doing this little route one afternoon. There are a half a dozen slides (at least 3 of them are fantastic), and another half dozen or so jumps all with some pretty epic scenery, especially for such a short trip! While this should be non-technical for pretty much any group that is okay with slides, and a ~15 foot jump that clears a 2 foot ledge, it is in a committed gorge, which I believe grants it the "3" rating, and means you should take it at least semi-seriously.
If you are looking for a longer route, you may combine the Lower section with segments of the East Fork Kaweah River (Oak_Grove) section for a half or full day.
On hot summer days when the temperature is above 90 degrees and there's plenty of sun, a wetsuit is pretty unnecessary.
For water levels, I'd look for the "Kaweah River At Three Rivers" gauge (http://www.dreamflows.com/graphs/day.103.php) to be less than 200 or 250 cfs. And then, look for brown water coming down the pour overs looking upstream on the right off of Pumpkin Hollow Bridge. If the East Fork is flooding and 90% of that water is coming out of there, it's probably too high.
I think you could do it substantially higher, but it will be challenging, and you should bring ropes. Might make some of the slides unsafe too.
Note that both the entry and exit may be a bit sketchy for access. Be discreet.
27 August 2019: "Kaweah River At Three Rivers" gauge read 180cfs. At this flow there were several dangerous features that deserved careful consideration- every feature should be carefully examined before entering. There were two retentive holes that needed to be avoided. A minor slide around a rock had a dangerous pinch point that caught both canyoners. At another location a very strong current led into a rock with a sieve-y overhang. At several locations care and thought needed to be taken into which side of the river to be on and where to cross. Hydraulics at the base of the slides were fine. No rope or buddy river crossing techniques were needed.
Approach[edit]
Leave one car near (but not at!) the Gateway Inn. There is sporadic roadside parking on the other side of the Pumpkin Hollow bridge, pay attention to the no parking signs and the arrows there.
Drive up Mineral King Road, and park at the pull off here: 36.463000,-118.832363
This may be private property, but there's no sign at this particular spot on the barb wire fence.
Scramble down the ridge over some cow trails to the creek. You'll need to cut a bit right at some point to avoid cliffs. Watch for poison oak. Eventually you'll hit kind of an old road bed. Most likely if you take a right on the road, you'll find a trail that cuts down to the river shortly on the left.
Descent[edit]
Cross the creek and hike down the right side until you're forced into the creek. Things gorge up quickly, and you'll need to make a decision about whether or not to keep going after the first waterfall. If you're a kayaker, and you wouldn't describe this waterfall at this flow at the very least as "bony" it may be a good time to think about turning around.
I've done this a lot recently, so I'll try to list specifically the obstacles here for you.
The first waterfall I mentioned flows on the right side of the canyon. At normal flows you should be able to easily climb down the left side in between some boulders and the falls.
After crossing a pool, you'll get to a small drop where the water slides right to left, and could probably be descended a variety of ways. A long swim follows.
After passing some trees, you hit the first slide. Maybe 20 feet down, fairly steep. It's awesome. On the left in the main current at low flows, you can bounce down the right if the left looks too high.
Just after you will get to a double slide. You can slide off the dry rock on the right into a small pothole, then climb up and slide off the center or left of the next drop into ~4-5 feet of water. The shelf you land on comes in from the right so don't slide off the right. This gets sketchy with too much water, but you can climb around up on the right. Ends in another good size swim
A bit of boulder hopping takes you to a big falls. No great jump options that I found here. Climb down on the left. Afterwards you might notice some sort of memorial set up in a tree on the left.
A low angle slide that curves right follows. More fun with more water.
Next is another slide through the narrowest part of the canyon. You'll be forced to do this, so it might be an issue at really high water, although at least at somewhat high water, the way the slide scoops out at the bottom was not conducive to forming any hydraulics, and was super fun.
Some more boulder hopping brings you to a twin falls (side by side). Jumping off the cliffs (~15ft) down canyon left seems to offer the most fun, and only requires that you clear an obvious ledge that only sticks out ~2 feet.
Through some trees is another sliding falls. Don't slide it! There is a rock shelf in the current at the very bottom that would probably wreck your day. Walk around on the right.
Immediately after is another waterfall, that provides a fantastic slide, which will launch you into the air around halfway down. Some ropes are available on the right for repeat slides. You can also jump from the dry rock if the water is too high.
Boulder hop downstream to the next significant falls. At low water it is easy to walk down the left, where you can either walk straight down to the water, or scramble up a bit to the left and jump ~10 feet. At high water, you'll need to bypass on the right.
Boulder hop downstream a bit more and stay left in the current for another fun jump. A waterfall pours off either side of a boulder into a little grotto. You can jump off of this boulder, or a ledge on the left which happens to be the roof of the grotto.
Just downstream of here the creek splits. If you climb over the rock in the middle, down to the left channel (smaller of the two), you may find a pretty hilarious little spot for a downclimb into a steep low flow slide on the far right of this left channel.
Downstream of here is a little chute. Sit down in the current below the drops in it to get a fun little ride out into the pool below.
Last thing downstream is a spot where the water falls off drops to the right of a large granite outcropping on the right. You can slide down the left side of the river off a little ski jump, but you'll have to brace off the wall on the left pretty hard. Not necessarily recommended.
You're pretty close to the exit at this point. Just a bit of boulder hopping down to the middle fork.
Exit[edit]
Find somewhere to scramble up near the bridge and return to your car.
Red tape[edit]
Probably private property at the top, and parking can be difficult at the bottom. Don't park at the Gateway, they have enough parking issues as is, and I doubt they'd be happy about it unless you were staying there.
Beta sites[edit]
SummitPost.org : Kaweah River Canyons
