Cottonwood Creek (Joes)
01. Joe's Valley Reservoir to Route 29 (Straight Canyon)(Lower Seeley Creek)
| Difficulty | III-IV |
| Length | 8 mi |
| Avg Gradient | 90 fpm |
| Reach Info Last Updated | May 1, 2025 |
River Description
Cottonwood Creek, more appropriately named Lower Seeley Creek (or simply 'Joe's'), flows from Joes Valley Reservoir. The same turquoise water that attracts boaters and fisherman to this man made lake is found in the river. It really is a beautiful stretch of desert paddling when it has water. Most seasons don't see many releases over 200 cfs. While Gary Nichols states a level of 350+ or more is desirable for this section, it has been run as low as 180 cfs. While the creek isnt as pushy at these lower flows, there are more spots where one could pin a boat.
The rapids are generally pool drop in nature and are formed where large boulders have cleaved from the canyon walls and dropped to the stream bed. Two drops standout in my mind. The first consists of a left hand bend with three paths dropping approximately 4 feet into a pool below. This pool drains out a narrow slot just left of center and probably underneath the river right boulder. The second drop comes after a few class III-ish drops and is marked by a large boulder (house size) on the left hand bank. I frequently encounter trees pinned in here so a scout is advisable. The action continues to the take out with a number of less steep drops and boulder gardens. Our usual takeout is a dirt pullout on the road just after the canyon begins to open up. (Driving up the canyon, this is the only pull-off that leaves the road after the junction with Cottonwood canyon and Straight Canyon.) One may put-in anywhere along the road, some popular options are the last pull-out by the large Pine tree before the road climbs the grade up to the top of the dam, or by walking down the lower dam access road and bush-whacking to the river. (Please don't park on the dam access road, or anywhere blocking the main highway. After 9/11, the dam itself is a restricted area, please obey the no tresspassing signs)
There's plenty of free or National Forest camping around Joes Valley. Check some of the dirt roads leading north or
...River Features
Put In
Most of us are using the dirt pull out before the Dam service road. It is a short scramble to the river with a good eddy to wait for your crew to get in the water.
Birth Canal
The Birth Canal, This is the opening rapid. There are two lines, the first line, staying left line up to miss the first rock, at that rock turn to the right and bounce down the small drops and make the small opening between the two gateway rocks.
The second line is river right of the island, ducking a tree , hugging left, the water here is hitting a huge rock creating a pillow, staying left over the next couple small drops and making a right turn to go through the gateway. At low flows I like the right line, less scraping. at higher flows the left line seems better.
S-Turn
S-Turn Rapid, This is just like the name says, it is an S-turn. At lower flows. 250-300 it is pretty straight forward, Watch your edges with the switching currents, it spins a lot of people around and they finish the rapid backwards.
At Higher flows 300+ a Sieve forms on the right side. So Stay left away from the Right rocks, On one of the trips we had two seperate individuals get stuck in there.
Mikes Eddy
The river here turns to the left, it pillows into a rock and creates an strong eddy on the right. Some may want to go into the eddy. Getting out of the eddy is very tricky. This is also a spot for wood to gather. Have had people in the group stuck in the eddy before, and there is a small rock that blocks the bigger rock that hangs people up on the corner if hit wrong. I don't believe it is a sieve though.
Mine Cart Rapid
Mine Cart, in the parking lot to scout this rapid is an old mining cart, hence the name. this starts with a significant drop, then numerous boulders to avoid. as you make your way around several corners. There are eddies to gather your thoughts, before continuing through. It is a fairly long section.
Halloween Town Parking (Alt take out)
This is an alternate take out, due to the restroom and large parking lot.
Diversion Drop
This is a Diversion Dam, It has been run, good chance there could be wood, it is very short maybe 6' tall.
Paddle Puller
Paddle puller, this rapid wraps around an island the inside seems to be a little less manky. And how fitting is the name, the outside corner has taken a paddle from someone in the group everytime I have run it. It is a short drop with some boulder dodging.
Hidden Treasure
The last drop before the take out. A nice little gem of a suprise, stay on your toes, this one can get you.
Exit rapid
Exit rapid is a nice little boulder garden. Be careful there is barb wire down stream of here. So watch out for it!
Take Out
Trip Reports
Log in to add a reportMy last trip down I pulled the river wide tree out of the river. The rest of the run was clean. 95% of the run can be scouted from the road.
We took out just above 39.267326, -111.142651 and there is a barbed wire fence across the entire river.
Ran at 250 CFS. It is a beautiful canyon with some fun rapids! It is very easy to scout from the road all the way and if you decided not to do that it was easy to eddy hop to scout or hop out of the boats and look at things. There was one river wide log which you could go over on the left but we chose to portage. There was more wood but it was easy to avoid. There was a sieve about half way through (Shown in photo) that one member of our party got stuck in. Luckily was an easy rescue. There is a lot of BLM land aroudn to camp for free on or the New Joes Campground is another great option for camping but it costs $5. Word on the street is there is good climbing here too if you're looking for multisport days! Have fun and be careful!!
I cleaned up some treefall at approximately 39.28410, -111.23554. I couldn't remove the biggest log since I only had an axe and a pruning saw, but you could get under it if you needed to. As always, keep an eye out for wood anyway. It was my only portage when I ran it last week.
This eddy often suckers paddlers. It drains pretty powerfully under the log and rock. The rock visible in the main current flips some paddlers. Immediately downstream is a log jam on the left 2/3 of the river. Avoid swimming.