Provo

The headwaters for the Provo River lie just below Bald Mountain in the Upper Uintas. For most of the Upper Provo, Utah Route 150 (the Mirror Lake Highway) parallels the river. This section has three distinct parts -- the Upper Provo Falls park and huck, Slate Gorge, and the Box Canyon. Overall the run is about 5 and a half miles, but any of the sections may be run individually. The logistics for access to the run vary. Generally, UDOT opens the road to the lower section – Box Canyon – first. In big snow years they may plow to the summit by Memorial Day weekend. Generally, the road seems to open right about when boaters are looking to head up there. Note that it may be possible to drive further up RT-150 than the UDOT website indicates. Provo Falls consist of a series of ledge drops and slides. Hike your boat up from the parking lot following a rough trail that starts behind the restrooms. The upper most runnable drop is a small ledge the falls away underneath a log. We put in above this. Downstream from here are 5 smaller drops before a large sliding falls that ends in an eddy above the main two-tiered falls visible from the parking lot. You can usually eddy out above the main falls after the slide, but this has been blown before. This two tiered drop is generally run on the right. Keep you nose of the right wall and up at the bottom. Ankle injuries have occurred. Below this, the river swings past the overlook and over Bad Chiwawa, a butt busting bouncer down the left ordeal. It ends in an eddy above Big Boy a ramping to vertical 30-footer. The landing is shallow and the timing of the boof stroke to lift your bow is a bit complex. While successful runs are common, so are back injuries and other carnage. To date, I know of two paddlers who have sustained major injuries running this drop– one of whom can no longer sit in a kayak. Slate Gorge begins where the road crosses the river below the falls. This section is about 2 miles and contains a few low angle slides, b

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