Elk River

We ran the Elk River on Sat March 11th with a healthy medium flow of 4.3 and a beautiful sunny day with 55 degree weather. We could not have asked for better! Meanwhile back in the rogue valley, the fog had settled in and it was snowing on the pass. What a treat to escape the cold and enter a brief reprieve into temporary spring conditions.

the elk provided high-quality whitewater, and a very unique geology. If you take the time to Look around, you will be greatly rewarded, it is quite beautiful. A bit reminiscent of a smaller SF Smith.

At these flows the river felt very flowy and maintained a pretty solid class IV nature peppered by II and III's. At just under 11 miles, this river definitely delivered a fun challenge.

Beware of 'Idaho road scouting'. The view from the road would have you think the rapids are much smaller than they look. Many rapids we looked at from the drive up we didn't think much of until we were face to face with the rapid, quickly realizing how much bigger they actually were.

unfortunately, due to its geographic location, this River does not get much attention. It's a long drive from just about anywhere but locally.

we didn't make it all the way to Butler Bar due to fallen trees on the road. So we opted to carry our boats across and put in on a pretty little tributary on river left, just below a medium sized bridge.