North Fork Kaweah River (Lower)
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| | Raps:5-6 + Jumps, max ↨110ft
Red Tape:No permit required Shuttle:Required 90 min Vehicle:Passenger | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Condition Reports: | 1 Sep 2024
"Gotta say, this canyon did not win me over. We paired it with Upper Kaweah and Stony Creek for a multi-day trip of epic proportions, but I’d have ha |
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| Best season: | Jul to Oct
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36.6186, -118.9008
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Introduction[edit]
The lower technical portion of the Kaweah, while maybe not quite as ridiculously cool as the upper part, is still really beautiful, with some definite technical challenge, and great slides and jumps.
It is low elevation, and warm. In hot summer days, you can do it without a wet suit, which is kind of awesome.
Also, it makes for a great multiday trip when you combine it with the Upper North Fork, and perhaps Stony Creek above that.
Approach[edit]
Leave one car at the end of North Fork drive, (way up a curvy road from Three Rivers)
Drive up Dry Creek road from Generals Highway and follow the signs to Hartland. A mile or two before Hartland, take Pierce Valley road up on the right to Eshom Point OHV (this land mark can be input on your favorite navigation app). You have cell service here before descending the forest service road down to Cherry Flats.
As you drive up Pierce Valley road into Eshom Point OHV veer left on top of the hill to continue off the other side of the ridge. Next intersection take a left on the dirt road that contours along. I'd find somewhere to park here, but you can keep driving all the way down to Cherry Flats. The dirt road is easily traveled by 4x4's or a spirited driver in something akin to a Subaru Forester.
Maybe 4 or 5 miles out on this road it drops down a ridge and you hit an intersection where a road goes left and one goes straight down the ridge. Head straight, it will dead end quickly. Up ahead at the dead end, what looks kind of like a drainage ditch is actually a trail, and will be fairly obvious once you get onto it. There is poison oak, you cannot avoid it.
From Eshom Point OHV at the top driving down to Cherry Flats (where the trail starts) takes about 45 minutes one way. You will be driving slow due to the overgrown vegetation attempting to give you beautiful manzanita pinstripes. Those driving the entire road in early season should expect downed trees or washed out deep ruts.
Descent[edit]
The trail drops you out at the confluence of the North Fork and Redwood Creek. Just downstream the canyon starts with a 10 or 15 foot jump off a waterfall into a nice kind of grotto. Further down more jumps and slides await.
The technical portion becomes obvious and everything drops off down below you.
There are a few bolts for the first (two staged) rappel just right of the water course on top of the drop which are a bit terrifying to get to. These rappels keep you out of the water, and are okay with a decent amount of flow.
A short drop off I think a single bolt follows. This puts you into a slot with some boulders jammed in. If you have any doubts about the flow, you can climb out on the left before the next drop, walk downstream on the left and scope things out. Otherwise you can rappel off these rocks (you'll probably need to build an anchor, as the water tears everything in here up). If it looks bad, just bypass everything on the right, and find somewhere to rappel off the side of the final waterfall.
A little bit down from here you hit a rappel off of a tree on the left of a waterfall. The next drop looks maybe downclimbable, but it is really slick, so probably not. Also, the water all drives under a rock right after it. When I did it, I slipped, and slid under the rock and out the other side. It was pretty fun, but if the water was higher, you might die. Something to consider?
After this one final rappel down a big beautiful waterfall of 100 feet or so into a wide pool finishes the technical portion.
The fun is not entirely over though. I could see some people seeing the next part as a slog, but I think it's mostly pretty great. There are more slots, some you climb down, others have big waterfalls. Most waterfalls are bypassed on the left, often by jumping back into the pool at the bottom. Lots of swimming, your arms may get tired.
As it starts to get more sloggy, you will see old rock work from an irrigation pipe. A little while later there is a really fun low angle slide of 15 feet or so where it is obviously important to do the slide on the left. Stop and play here as long as you like, it's time to get out of the river now.
Exit[edit]
After playing in the slide, make your way up the steep grassy ridge on the left (east). Bushwhacking is not terrible for the vast majority of the way up, until you get to the very end, at which point you may be belly crawling. Don't worry though, the trail is close!
Except maybe you should worry, because the trail is not maintained, and is equally bushwhacky in spots. Sorry? After the first mile and a half or so it gets better. 6 miles total down to your car, it takes a while, and will probably be unpleasantly hot. There is not necessarily any water available, without bushwhacking back down to the creek. Once you are quite close to your car, another path from Yucca Creek comes in from the left. Another quarter mile down or so, you cross a bridge and come back up to the end of North Fork Drive and your car!
Red tape[edit]
There is an alternate exit on the East that is shorter and on a dirt road that goes back to pavement. However, this is a private road and using it without permission would be trespassing. Please don't do that, it's not good for canyoneers to be caught trespassing. If you want to use this road try to contact the owner and get proper permission, otherwise stick to the official exit.
You can actually do this as a loop, and it is far more pleasant. At the slide, if you go up the right (west) side you will find an old road, which can be connected to dirt roads to loop around nicely back up to your car. This is all private property, so you shouldn't do it. But you could. ;)
Beta sites[edit]
Trip reports and media[edit]
Dumping this description of lower waterpark from Daniel Elson:
I have a very clear memory of lower’s most technical section(starting at pic 88):
slide, slide, jump, 10’ rap, “theoretically” scramble around DCL and slide right next to the waterfall, then 3 more slides(?),
THEN sketchy slide rick and I did unroped and we set up a hand line that we also used to rappel the two stage thru the sieve. In lower flow that hand-line wouldn’t be necessary, and it is probably a jump DCL and then a slide under the rock sieve.
After that is a big waterfall (bolts DCL) that you can jump or slide from the halfway point.
That’s pretty much the entire technical section and pretty badass. One of my favorite all time sequences. Right before it there was a slide underneath a fallen tree.