Helms Creek,

Courtright reservoir to the NF Kings river

Gauge Information

River Description

Helms Creek drops through a fantastic glacier carved canyon below Courtright reservoir. Hiking through the canyon is fun and fairly easy. There are numerous long and steep slides in the canyon. A few are clearly not safely boatable/slidable. Many slides look appealing and might be in the realm of today's steep creekers. A lot of the slides are pretty steep. A few have bad landings or rocks in bad places. The two biggest waterfalls land on rocks, but all the portages are easy and mostly on smooth bedrock slabs

Forty cfs is the most release this creek ever sees since the construction of the Helms Project. But since much of this creek is bedrock slides and falls, 40 cfs seems like it might be ok if you don't mind leaving some plastic behind. During the spring, a side creek may add enough to improve the boating potential.

Getting there: From Fresno take freeway 168 to Shaver Lake. Just before the main town of Shaver Lake, turn right onto Dinkey Creek Rd. At Dinkey Creek the road becomes the McKinley Grove Rd. A few miles before Wishon Reservoir, turn left onto the Courtright road. At Courtright, bear right across the dam and park near the trailhead. google map.

Put-in: There is a trail and stairway near the dam that provides access to the gauging station. However the creek is very congested and tight at first. Depending on your taste, you may or may not find it enjoyable. If you hike around behind the large dome on east side, then follow a small creek down to the main creek you will bypass 7/10ths of a mile of congestion. The first big slides start 1.2 miles below the dam. google map.

Take-Out: Continue down the NF Kings to Wishon and then paddle about 2 miles across the reservoir to the nearest road on the west side of the reservoir. google map.

FERC Information:

Courtright Dam and reservoir, along with Wishon Dam and the Kings River Powerhouse (near Kirch Flat) are all part of the Hass-Kings River Project, FERC #1988. Flows in Helms Creek and access below the dam are thus subject to FERC regulation. If boaters want scheduled release with higher boatable flows and real time flow information they must send documentation of their needs to FERC. This project was relicensed in 3/6/2001. The license will expire again in 2/28/2041.