Icicle Creek
1 - Rock Island Campground to Johnny Creek (Upper)
| Difficulty | II-III+(V) |
| Length | 5.5 mi |
| Avg Gradient | 60 fpm |
| Gauge | Icicle Creek Above Snow Creek Near Leavenworth, Wa |
| Flow Rate as of 14 hours | 1600 cfsrunnable |
| Reach Info Last Updated | February 27, 2026 |
Projects
The Okanogan and Wenatchee National Forests encompass more than four million acres and are jointly managed with headquarters in Wenatchee, Washington. The rivers flowing through these forests are essential to the whitewater paddling community—both as close-to-home runs for Washington residents and as classic objectives for paddlers traveling from across [...]Read More
River Description
The upper reach of Icicle Creek has some fun whitewater but the personality of this run is hard to pin down: a class II braided mess, class V hair, or delightful class III? This run has a little bit of everything.
The run starts off with a fun class IV drop at Rock Island. Put-in upstream of the bridge and run the drop under the bridge to the delight of spectators who hike the Icicle Gorge Trail, camp at Rock Island, or enjoy the day-use area on the downstream river left side of the bridge.
Continuing downstream, the river is fairly continuous class II with fun stretches of class III. Expect to find wood in play and remember that the water is always cold--they call this Icicle Creek for a reason.
You will recognize the approach to Icicle Gorge as the river takes a hard bend to the left at a big bedrock wall that extends down to the river along river right and forms a fun rapid. As the river makes another hard bend to the right you will be looking downstream into Icicle Gorge--you should see the footbridge that crosses the river.
Icicle Gorge can be easily scouted before the run as a trail parallels both sides of the river and a bridge crosses the heart of the gorge just above the crux move--a class V drop with a massive boiling hole. To portage this, you can run the first class IV entrance drop into the gorge and then grab an eddy on river right that provides easy access to the riverside trail. Shoulder your boat and hike down to the footbridge, cross to river left, and hike up the short switchback trail to the road. You can put-in by hiking a couple hundred hards to the Chatter Creek Guard Station. A social trail behind the toilet heads down towards the river but kind of disappears before you reach the river (keep angling upstream). If you don't want to deal with the poor footing, you can just continue down the road about 1/4 mile to where the river comes up against the road.
Downstream of Icicle Gorge, the river is mostly class II
...River Features
Rock Island Put-in
From Highway 2 mile 99.1 (the west end of Leavenworth) turn on to Icicle Creek Road. The Rock Island put-in is reached 16.5 miles up Icicle Creek Road where you turn left at the Y and continue another 0.1 mile to the bridge across Icicle Creek. To run this first drop, access the river on the upstream river left side of the bridge.
Rock Island Drop
A fun rapid under the bridge that starts off the run. You can run it or put in just below.
Icicle Creek Gorge
A short class V gorge that can be easily portaged. You can view the Icicle Gorge 15.0 miles up Icicle Creek Road immediately across from Chatter Creek Campground. You should see the foot bridge across the gorge if you look down towards the river and there is a short switch back trail here that takes you from the road down to the trail along the river.
Ida Creek Campground Access
From Highway 2 mile 99.1 (the west end of Leavenworth) turn on to Icicle Creek Road. The Ida Creek Campground 12.6 miles up Icicle Creek Road has served as a take-out for this run but it can also be a put-in for a short mile and a half run down to Johnny Creek (good for an evening lap when you are spending your days on the Wenatchee but camping along Icicle Creek).
Forest Road 7605 Bridge Access
From Highway 2 mile 99.1 (the west end of Leavenworth) turn on to Icicle Creek Road. The Forest Road 7605 Bridge is located 12.2 miles up Icicle Creek Road. This access avoids the final mile of continuous class III+. Alternatively you can use this as a put-in if you are looking for a short run.
Johnny Creek Campground Take Out
From Highway 2 mile 99.1 (the west end of Leavenworth) turn on to Icicle Creek Road. Johnny Creek Campground is located at mile 11.2 on Icicle Creek Road. Several sites in the campground provide convenient river access but if they are all full, you can find a good access at a mini beach between sites 5 and 6 that avoids walking through someone's campsite. The creek quickly builds to class IV downstream of this access point.
Trip Reports
Log in to add a reportAlthough future landslides are always a possibility, the road is open as of spring 2014. One big log early in the run that may require a portage depending on flows. We also encountered a big braided mess with a few log jams that had to be portaged downstream of Icicle Gorge.
they fixed the road