Virgin

Most features were blown out, the river was quick and punchy. There are very few if any calm eddys for safety below rapids. Lot's of larger waves. Lots of squirrely/boiling water at river corners. Rapids were read and run but there is zero chance of scouting them once in the river. We were able to scout some locations from the freeway before our run. There are a handful of small beaches to regroup on during the run.

I would still recommend sticking to flows in the 1,000-2,000 range better.

This is a great flow.  You may start hitting rocks at 700 or below and as the river gets above 1500, you'll start getting stronger eddy fences and bigger wall shots. Everything is read and run at this level. I don't see a need to scout anything, but there isnt much of a chance to do so anyways... The river is quick down here. Most of the banks are choked full of brush and the banks will be steep and deep. There isn't a lot of eddys so being able to self rescue is important here. You better be quick! Run the main flow and be aware of the walls.  There are several class II/III rapids.  The river is scenic and splashy with fun waves.  From first SB I-15 bridge to cedar pockets took 1.5 Hours.

I've parked on NB side just North of last river crossing and accessed river at about 200 yards downstrem from bridge.

The concrete fish barrier dam on the Bloomington to I-15 section was raised 3 ft in 2014 without public input. A shallow notch in the center of the span is 40 ft wide, but only 1 ft deep and below about 1,000 cfs might provide a run over the dam. I have observed it at flows up to 3, 000 cfs and have seen video up to 7,000 cfs. At these flows, the barrier dam forms a 180 ft wide, river-wide recirculating hole with about a 15-ft backwash. There are no eddies upstream, swift current river-wide, dense tamarisk on both banks, and 6 ft high concrete wingwalls on both left and right banks, providing no option for portaging within 1/4 mile upstream. I consider this an extreme safety hazard above 1,500 cfs and not runnable. The fish dam is located about 1/4 mile downstream of where a 50 kV power line crosses the river. I formerly maintained the streamgage at the barrier dam (and surveyed the elevations of the dam both before and after the 2014 modification) and have onver 100 runs down the Virgin Gorge.

Ran on April 24th. High that day was 653 at noon at the littlfield gauge and low that day was 260.
We put in on a dirt road off of Black Rock Road. This was a mistake. It did not save any time and on the way out we got a flat.
You can put in on the same place on the other side of the river by driving out past Bear Claw Poppy trails but the river there is choked with Tammy's so dont bother.
The easiest put is in Bloomington at the Man o War Bridge. The other routes do not save any time at all.
We ran the river from this point all the way to littlefield take out in 5 hours. Some guide books say 10 but I don't see how.
The first low head Dam is not low its around 8 feet tall onto a flat surface. Then it looks as if there is rebar sticking up on the run out. Do this at your own risk.
The way to portage is to get out of your boat at the river gauge around 30 yards before the dam. Then walk as close as you can to the bank. It is very shallow all the way up to the dam. Then we just handed the kayaks down over the dam. It was super easy.
The portage on land would be brutal. One side is an awful climb out and the other is choked with tamarisks.
I am posting on You tube a recent video of Big 10 rapid. This is a easy move just stay left of the big Rock in the middle (you can't go right at this water level) or 1 foot off the left bank if your in a Kayak.
Great scenery and fun splashy rapids. The lower gorge is really quite easy at this level.
I would suggest a scout of Lets make a deal. We only saw door one at this level without scouting. So all the kayaks made door one without a problem. We tried to squeeze a Jacks Plastic Culebra through the door with no success. We got it unstuck but managed to swim in the process.
This is a great run at least as good in its own way as the muddy or the lower price or San Rafael. The bonus is the shuttle is easier and the rapids are a lot better. This is a great Duckie river.

Put in at Sun River in St. George and took out at First I-15 Bridge in Gorge. 9.5 miles. Class II with a couple short class III sections.

There is a large Fish dam with a 5+ foot drop to flat concrete that we portaged about 5 miles down stream from put in. It's just below some large powerlines that cross the river. The banks are thick with brush and there is no eddys. Ther are a handful of small trails that boaters have taken through the brush but it will be a chore to portage it FYI. Area is remote and options for bailing out early are difficult due to distance back to pavement. Below the fish dam the canyon is very scenic and rarely seen. River at 400 CFS.