Elk River

Awesome run. came up from sacramento to paddle the smith...everything is frozen or not accesible. we drove up from the smith (1.5 hours) and ran the middle section of the elk. REALLY GOOD RUN for the class IV paddler. about 5 class IV's, two harder than the rest. one of the big ones is visible from the road, most of the other hard rapids arnt visible unless you whack down into the gorge (wouldnt be that hard). Water quality is similar to smith, rapids were steep, gorge was tight etc... We camped and ran the chetco the following day.great run but a little high. Overall..if the smith isnt working out, great alternative.