New,

14. New River Gorge: Cunard to Fayette Station

Usual Difficulty	III-IV(V) (may vary with level)
Avg. Gradient	20 fpm
Max Gradient	27 fpm

Gauge Information

Name	Range	Difficulty	Updated	Level
New at Fayette Station
virtual-6362	-2.00 - 12.00 ft	III-IV(V)	01h13m	6.2593 ft (rc= 0.6 )

River Description

The section from Thurmond to Fayette Station is 14 mi. long; however ,most paddlers shorten the trip by running the 6.5 mi. section from Cunard to Fayette Station. This section contains all of the rapids except for one called Surprise. The put in at Cunard takes out all of the long pools. Plus, as a bonus the Park Service has built the best bathrooms I have ever seen at a National Park! Great for those first-timer jitters! For more information on the "upper" section see the Thurmond to Cunard page.

This is a big volume powerful river and can be run over a wide range of river levels. All of the descriptions of the rapids are at the level of 2 ft on the Fayette Station gauge.
Most agree that the optimal level is 2ft. At this level the Kenneys, Double Z, and Fayette Station are really stompin'. The lower the river is, as you would expect, things get smaller. The weird thing is the higher the river goes the smaller features disappear and in my opinion things get easier. You have HUGE holes, but you have forever to make your move around them. Above 10 ft there are no real eddies and the river is really wide. That spells disaster for swimmers. If you do not have big water paddling skills then stay off above 6ft. The high max level is set at 12ft because that is the Park Service cutoff for rafting trips.

Thank you to the Keelhauler Canoe Club for a very nice shuttle map.

FYI: According to the people who know such things, the New River is the second oldest river in the world.

NPS Guide to paddling the New River

NPS map of the New & Gauley Rivers