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Boulder Creek, CO

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3. Blue Bridge to Eben G Fine Park (Canyon Run)

Class IV
6 Miles
Avg Gradient 136 fpm
Max Gradient 220 fpm

Canyon Run


Canyon Run
Photo of Lower half of Elephant Buttress Rapid by Brian Adkins

Gauge Information

Boulder Creek
3. Blue Bridge to Eben G Fine Park IV
low
14.00
10/16 12:15
[detail]

Min Sug. Level:  150 Max Sug. Level:  1000

River Description

This run has several different put-in options, basically any dirt pullout near the creek will do. But the most popular is 4-mile canyon, at the end of the bike path. You can put up as high as the take-out for the Upper Canyon Run and get a 6 mile run in. Just keep driving up the canyon until you see an obvious BLUE bridge near mile Marker 34(or about 6 miles upstream of the takeout). Put in about a 1/4 mile above the bridge near the base of a BIG Class V/V+. Watch out for the bridge at the Red Lion Inn, they did the cheapest bridge possible by tossing some big culverts in the creek and putting dirt over them. The culverts filled up with wood in 2003 and the bridge almost washed away. Also there are two low-head dams near the power plant, but they are runnable. Despite the high gradient the all the rapids are easily read and run. At Elephant Buttress there is an excellent play hole, but if you don't have a super-fast roll you won't catch the eddy and you will be in Elephant Buttress Rapid(IV+). If you haven't been down this rapid before it is worth a scout, it has a reputation for being a bad place to be upside down. Shortly downstream, after passing under two bridges, prepare to negotiate a wier. The whitewater course at Eben G. Fine is pretty crappy by today's standards. It has a few spin holes and eddy lines. A trashy ender hole called Widowmaker is located at the end of the course, just past the Arapahoe St bridge.

To get there: The entire run parallels Hwy 119, Doherty Park is at mile marker 38, the Four Mile Canyon put-in is at mile marker 39. At the take-out you can park in the last block of Arapaho Street, next to the park. Also, nearby on Canyon Blvd there are a couple of large dirt pullouts that are a little closer to the white water course.

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 various reaches of Boulder Creek,
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+).


StreamTeam Status: verified
Last Updated: 2008-05-17 17:18:01