Boulder Creek, South,

River Description

Guaranteed cold and clear, Alto-Alto South Boulder Creek boasts great paddling fun from the get. With a variety of put-in options, this classic Colorado creek run can be paddled from a variety of launch points. Put-ins range from one mile to four miles above Rollinsville (with tricky private land river access issues and a few man-made features). The river is alpine-like near the Moffat Tunnel, rolling and falling away in sections; pooling and dropping from mining evidence in the Tolland Valley. Once under HWY 119, the canyon tightens, the rapids increase and the train feels like its in the river with you. Spanky Rapid: Eddy out river left to scout before the river turns back to the right and plunges down a cascade with a wall on river right and the train tracks on river left. This rapid differs tremendously between 350 and 600 cfs, creating two river-wide ledges at higher flows that can/do stomp due to the static and unnatural shoreline on river left that mirror the river right shoreline. Spanky rapid is followed by a few tight turns and river splitting islands. Early season fun-fact: long vertical icicles at head height near island splits bring on new meaning to icecream headache. Unique hazard feature: this is the only run in Colorado where kayakers can be run over by Semi Trucks while boating. (private land owner is trucking trailer loads of gravel out of the former Ice House property by crossing the creek many times daily) The run has a great canyon section, the occasional crazy naked gold miner and the front range kitty kat, (Felix Concolour, aka Mountain Lion) is home to this canyon. Beware metal sieve at railroad track crossing overhead and railroad debris and low bridge in the creekbed near takeout. Wood frequently moves through this run, so heads up boaters!

See Colorado Rivers and Creeks II, by Banks and Eckardt (The Bible), for info on this and most of the other kewl runs of Colorado.

Lat/longitude coords are approximate, from TopoZone.

The creeks of Boulder County,
Jasper Creek (Class V+/VI),
The Source (Class V),
Upper Boulder Canyon (Class V,V+),
Lower Boulder Canyon (Class IV),
Boulder Town Run (Class II/III),
North Fork Boulder (Class V+/VI),
Alto-Alto (Class IV),
Upper South Boulder (Class V+/VI),
Lower South Boulder (Class IV/V+/VI),
Eldorado Canyon (Class V+).