Gila

Put in at Old Saffford Bridge on May 12 2023 at 110 cfs, with an additional 160 cfs at the confluence with the San Francisco River.  I'd done the same stretch of the Gila at least twice before, but the river and rapids change with every high water.  We had five canoes and three IKs for a lovely overnight trip to the take-out at Dry Canyon 22 miles downstream, just below Bonita Creek.  BUT the 17 ft and 18 ft canoes had trouble in tight bits, often getting sideways and swamped on either rocks or strainers.  Flows were so low that the worry was not drowning but rather swamping the canoe and the aluminum canoes getting damaged while swamped (which did happen twice). Some rapids had to be lined, including the one in photo, above the confluence with the San Francisco - too low to run! I've run this at 500 cfs plus in a s15 foot Coleman canoe previously and although you needed to pay attention to every rapid it was doable with a few scapes.  On this 2023 trip we still managed to have a good time at these flows, but recommend future canoe paddlers to be in 15 ft or less canoes with experienced paddlers.  The IKs had no trouble. We saw only two solo IKs during our two day trip.  A beautiful river canyon with plenty of campsites. Remarkable recovery of riparain trees after the 1993 flood scoured the Arizona Gila Box - the cottonwoods are 50 ft tall.

Went from the Old Safford Bridge to Bonita Creek 7/9-7/10. We did this trip with a 9.5ft cataraft, 4 Alpacka's and 1 IK. There were a few tight/shallow spots for the cat but overall it  made it through no problem. Trip started out at about 350 - 400cfs but spiked to almost 550 Saturday during an afternoon monsoon storm. There were no strainers to report. There were many sweepers throughout the trip, at higher water some of these could be tricky to navigate.  The warning signs for fences just passed the Subia property are still up but we did not encounter any fences across the river.

Ran the Gila twice this spring (mid and late April) in IKs and packrafts. Once at about 400 the second time closer to 190. We did not put in at Virden because we had heard from several people that anything above Guthrie is thick salt cedar and difficult to navigate. The first time we put in at the Old Safford Bridge and the second time we put in a little further upriver to add miles and because we had access to some private property. We met another group that had put in at the highway bridge on the 191 just before you get to Threeway. There weren't any major strainers, there was one spot where the river curved and the water wanted to push you into a large brush pile but it you could see it coming and our group was all able to paddle out of it. We did meet another group that wasn't as lucky and got caught up in it. Unfortunately, I don't remember the river mile. If you look at the map at the Old Safford Bridge rec area it mentions there are two sections of fences across the water, however those are now down. Highly recommend this as an easy overnight trip, it's a good intro for beginners. All rapids were straight forward read and run. As one would expect the wave trains and rapids were more fun at the higher CFS but it was still a great trip at lower. Great river for wildlife, we saw bighorn sheep, coatis, and deer.

The Gila River is a major waterway for Arizona, though significant flows are rare. This reach usually runs year-round, depending upon local rainfall, but the best conditions are normally found in the early to late spring, when snows melt in the San Francisco Mountains of Apache National Forest in far western New Mexico. The river begins as three forks (North Fork, Middle Fork and South Fork) north of Silver City and west of Truth of Consequences. From its headwaters the Gila River flows west through Safford, Florence, Glendale and Yuma, then into California along the Mexico border to the Colorado River. The Gila River has three major tributaries in the San Carlos, San Francisco and San Simon Rivers in southeastern Arizona.

From the Virden, New Mexico access off SH 92 (SH 75 in Arizona) to Solomon Pass Road low-water bridge take-out just north of Solomon, the Gila River flows about 65 miles. The first 40 miles is in a southeast to northwest direction, turning northeast to southwest about a mile above the Eagle Creek confluence, then flowing about 13.5 miles to the Dry Canyon boat take-out (BLM) and finally about 11.5 miles more to the Town of Solomon at US Highway 70 near Rope Lake State Park. Like most Arizona waterways, the Gila spends most of its life as a dry, sandy riverbed with a lot of small to large rocks holding it down, but this reach is generally navigable year-round, and after any significant local rainfall the stream can rise quickly to a Class II to III river with a moderately strong current. It is free-flowing from its New Mexico headwaters to Ashurst-Hayden Dam about 15 miles below the Town of Kelvin, including the entire run described in this report.

The Gila is very typically Arizona topography - all around the riverbed is miles of Sonoran desert, rolling hills, small, sandy mountains with scrub brush foliage and a lot of snakes, scorpions and other unsavory critters that paddlers would usually rather not encounter. The Gila Box area is rife with an abundance of Arizona sycamores, Goodding willows, Fremont cottonwoods, walnuts, mesquite and numerous species of ground vegetation that create a green ribbon of plant life along the river corridor. The Box is home to about 42 mammal, 175 bird, 34 reptile and 10 amphibian species of wildlife that are supported by native vegetation and the river. Black bears, mule deer, javelina, Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep, beavers, mountain lions and other such creatures may be seen by a lucky visitor to this area.

Late fall rains sometimes provide the most dependable flows for boating, but this river can rise anytime it rains hard, then drop again almost as suddenly. Sustainable flows seldom last for more than a few days to a few weeks. There are no river-related services along this reach of the river.

River description provided by Southwest Paddler and is used with permission