Klamath

The six-mile K’íka·c’é·ki Valley Run features easy whitewater, continuous current, and a meandering channel, making it suitable for less experienced boaters or those seeking a relaxed whitewater trip. The river is incised into the valley floor, and floating it provides a fascinating look into a landscape that was submerged for over a century by Copco Reservoir. K’íka·c’é·ki is the Shasta language place name for the greater landscape of this area, pronounced phonetically as K’-EE-kah-ts’EH-kee.

K’íka·c’é·ki Valley

The six-mile K’íka·c’é·ki Valley Run is the gentlest section of the undammed Upper Klamath River—thanks, ironically, to a natural dam formed by lava flows between 140,000 and 10,000 years ago in the present day location of K’íka·c’é·ki Canyon. This lava dam created a five-mile-long lake that eventually filled with gravel and clay eroded from the Cascade Range upstream. The river eventually cut through the lava dam, draining the lake (sometimes referred to as Clammittee Lake) and leaving behind a flat valley floor which the river incised with a meandering channel. This fertile valley supported vibrant Indigenous communities and, later, settler farms. Downstream, the river has now cut through lava to form the vertical-walled K’íka·c’é·ki Canyon.

Human Damming of Klamath River

The narrows of K’íka·c’é·ki Canyon were the Klamath's most obvious hydropower dam site, but it wouldn't prove easy to construct a dam in the canyon. After six years of challenging construction and financial turbulence, the California Oregon Power Company completed of Copco 1 Dam in late 1917. The dam displaced Shasta Indian families, flooded cultural sites, and drown settlers' ranches and orchards. For over a century, Copco Reservoir covered this beautiful valley, replacing its fertile landscape with stagnant waters that fostered toxic algae blooms. These blooms forced summer swimming closures and led to health warnings on the

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