Applegate River, Middle Fork
Below Whiskey Creek to Applegate Reservoir(Middle Fork Applegate)
| Difficulty | II-III(V) |
| Length | 4 mi |
| Avg Gradient | 54 fpm |
| Reach Info Last Updated | April 11, 2025 |
River Description
The Middle Fork Applegate River is a fairly continuous class III creek run just south of the Oregon/California state line within the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest. The river is beautiful, and it is very popular with boaters from the Rogue Valley. It is considered a good introduction to creek boating. The run is busy, but there are many eddies. Mostly the domain of kayaks, IKs, and packrafts, the MF Applegate can be run by small rafts (10-12') when flows at the gage exceed 1000 cfs.
The Applegate River flows north from the Siskiyou Mountains to its confluence with the Rogue River west of Grants Pass. It is the second largest tributary to the Rogue River after the Illinois River. The Middle Fork Applegate is 98% in California but enters Oregon just before it reaches the Applegate reservoir. The easiest access is from Oregon through the Applegate Valley. A gravel road runs alongside but it is often above or back away from the river.
There is one ugly, undercut rapid in the middle of the run that is almost always portaged. It is immediately upstream of the second bridge. Scout the take-out for this portage carefully, as it would be easy to blunder into this rapid. The portage on river right is actually quite easy and you'll walk on some beautiful banded amphibolite, the same rock formation that forms the undercut shelf. That said, because of the portage and increase in quality of the river below the undercut, many people just put in at the bridge just downstream to make for a portage free lap.
Season: The Applegate has a spring snowmelt season but not every winter delivers enough snow for a long season. It can also flow during warmer winter rainstorms and this is when it is most often boated.
Flows: There is no direct gauge on the Middle Fork Applegate so flows are necessarily an estimate. NOAA maintains an inflow gauge t
...River Features
Waterfall
This waterfall above the usual put-in, has been run a few times, but never with good results.
Put-in
Access on river left a short distance below the waterfall and just upstream of Cook and Green Creek, where you a short pull out allows you to get a few vechiles off the road. It is a short hike down to river level. You can walk up to view the waterfall from the put-in.
Upper Rapids
A series of class 3 rapids starts at the upper put-in and runs for at least 1/4 mile, ending at the confluence with Cook & Green Creek. In that distance there are five class 3 to 3+ rapids (depending on flow) with short sections of class 2 water in between. (The upper section has less water, is more shallow and has more boulders then below the bridge. Flipping almost always results in hitting bottom.)
Undercut Chute
The river funnels into a long narrow banded amphibolite bedrock chute. The left wall forms a low roof where the river has cut back under it. This rapid is normally portaged on the right and it is easy to walk up to the road. Make sure you have your eddy to start the portage identified.
Second Bridge
Second Bridge is about 2.5 miles upstream of the reservoir. A large turnout provides an easy put-in, just upstream of this bridge on river right. The river has a lot of class 3 from here to the take-out. The bedrock class 5 rapid just upstream is dangerously undercut and is normally portaged.
Bridge Access
An informal parking area and lesser used take-out are on the downstream river left side of this bridge. Most boaters continue around the bend to a large developed recreation area on the reservoir where it is easier to take out.
Seattle Bar Day Use Area Take-out
Take-out on river right at the Seattle Bar Day Use Area where the river transitions to the slackwater of the reservoir. The access is located on river right just upstream of the bridge across the upper arm of the reservoir. If the reservoir is full, which it usually is not during boating season, this area may be underwater.
Trip Reports
Log in to add a reportA great medium flow with busy continuous whitewater at 1400 cfs inflow to the reservoir. Megi and Bill took packrafts and Tom was in a kayak. We put in at the Undercut and paddled down to Seattle Bar on the reservoir. We were on the water for about an hour.
We had a beautiful day on the Middle Fork Applegate with three kayaks (Tom, Scott, and Jeff), two packrafts (Kevin and Megi), and an R2 (Bill and Bob). We ran from below the waterfall just above the confluence of Cook and Green Creek. We portaged the Undercut Chute by walking up to the road and putting in below. We continued down to the next bridge just above the reservoir. Inflow on the reservoir of 1160 was a good flow on the lower side of medium. The run was busy class III with good eddies although most were smaller than the whole group could catch. We encountered one large log near the start of the run that was easy to float under. Closer to the reservoir a river-wide log completely blocked the channel in a narrow bedrock chute but we were able to reposition it and the run is free of wood hazards.
We paddled this run 4 times over 2 day at about 500 on the dreamflows estimate, and 750-800 on the Applegate inflow gauge during spring snowmelt. 4/21-4/22
https://www.nwrfc.noaa.gov/river/station/flowplot/flowplot.cgi?lid=APLO3
This was an excellent first time flow, and the run exceeded my expectations by quite a bit. Lots of good, friendly class III whitewater with pleny of variety, and rather pretty for a roadside run. The run was portage free (we put in below the undercut rapid), but a couple of the class II gravel bars had wood that needed to be avoided, usually by going through shallow water to the left of the trees. We found the wood to be obvious and not in any notable rapids.
Pick which run you want to do first
The normal put in is about 75 yards above the bridge. The undercut in the background
Marcelo Leyva in topless weather girl
A little different angle
This is the top half of the rapid
Picture of Stepen McCleary in an unamed rapid
APLO3 gauge reading on the day most pictures were taken, the applegate usually gets about 2/3rds the flow from my understanding correct me if I'm wrong