Willamina Creek
Blackwell Park Section
| Difficulty | II-III(IV) |
| Length | 5 mi |
| Avg Gradient | n/a |
| Reach Info Last Updated | March 18, 2026 |
River Description
A class II-III run with three class IV's in the first couple of miles, then a lot of surf waves, then easy floating interupted by a couple more class III's.
Boaters can put in where the road turns from pavement to gravel to skip the class IV rapids in the first couple miles (or portage them). Or, for a short run boaters only interested in the most action can take out at this bridge.
The section along the gravel road starts at Lower Willamina Falls, a wide ledge best run center-right, or put in below. Read and run leads to the next class IV, which can be scouted or portaged on the left. More read and run leads to a private bridge which signals the next rapid, a wide and ledgy start, where boaters should move right to catch a portage eddy above a small but funky ledge drop. This drop can be scouted on the drive up, if you might want to run it scout from river-left not far below the private bridge, and part way down the lead in rapid.
Some more class III- and II rapids continue down to the bridge where the shuttle road turns from gravel to pavement (while headed downriver). Things get much easier below here, and slow down. There are some small surf waves and small rapids. After two tributaries add to the flow, paddlers cross under the Willamina Creek road bridge, another access point. About half a mile downstream is an island with low angle bedrock slides on either side, right is more straight forward (class III).
Around the corner is a short bedrock wall on the left, and a high quality surf wave that is worth spending time at. Just around the corner from here is the bridge at Blackwell Park. Scout the downstream rapid from the park or read and run, the most common line is down the left bank. Eddy out immediately below the rapid to walk back up into the park.
Use the instantaneous flow option on this gauge for flow: https://
...River Features
Fendall School
Take out under the bridge on river-left, park in the school parking lot or just across the street.
Lower Willamina Falls
Put in at the small pull out adjacent to Lower Willamina Falls.
Trip Reports
Log in to add a reportJust over 500 cfs was a nice flow for an after work run on the mile long section ending in Blackwell Park. There was a quick log portage below the Poultry Wave, just out of view of upstream from the bridge in Blackwell Park.
2026-02-11 Priscilla and I ran a short stretch from Willamina Creek Road bridge to Blackwell Park at a bit over 300 cfs. This was enough for an after work run, the nice green surf wave next to the bedrock wall/adjacent to the chicken farm was still in. The slide was low but still flowed. There was a large tree across the river just upstream and out of sight from Blackwell Park that we ducked on the left but would need to be portaged at some flows. The section upstream of the pavement/gravel change on the shuttle road looked very low, maybe runnable, but likely not worthwhile.
375 cfs or so was getting low, but wasn't too low. Could probably get down lower. The many surf waves that exist at medium flows were mostly gone, and I'd probably only do the upper 2 miles at this flow. There was one set of small waves that were still surfable. We took out at Blackwell Park.
11-01-25
We put on just behind a 600 cfs bubble, this was a good flow. We portaged one log in the first two miles. Lots of surf waves at this flow in the flatter section above Blackwell Park.