Kern
8) Rancheria Road to Hart Park
| Difficulty | I-II |
| Length | 7.3 mi |
| Avg Gradient | 14 fpm |
| Reach Info Last Updated | September 18, 2012 |
River Description
Below Rancheria Road, the Kern is scenic and relatively flat. There are a number of rapids or sections of swiftwater along the length. Much of this section flows past public parks, so there are many options for access. Below Hart Park the river is lined with private residences.
Put in:
There is a large parking area on the south side of Rancheria Rd bridge.
Take out:
There appear to be a number of options for take out at either Kern River State Park (Lake Ming), or at the Kern River County Park. There may be even more options further downstream, but boaters will have to portage various diversion dams.
Other Information Sources:
Cassady & Calhoun, Martin, Alan Baty
River Features
Put In
Take Out
Trip Reports
Log in to add a reportThis is one of the best play waves on this run. It seems to stay steady at most levels. So far I have been able to surf this as low as 250 cfs
This is the put in at the top of trail paddle up the channel to the river where it opens up into a supreme flat water play spot or practice rolls.
There are a few small rapids in between that at different flows have some play holes and waves
River splits around a small island with some small holes and waves then comes back together and creates the mt. whitney wave. At normal flows there are several routes and makes this a very fun rapid with the best play on the run.
Rancheria Rapid Is the last but longest rapid on this run. It has a great play wave a few play holes and one hole in the middle you want to miss we like to call bottoms up. Take out river left after this and walk trail back to parking lot. Or you can keep floating down river to lake ming campgrounds, golf course, even Hart park. I will try to get more photos of this rapid and a few that I missed along this run.
Start of the Hiking trail from parking lot, trail is on the east side of Rancheria Rd.
This Is the flat water play spot on the run looking back on the put in channel. You can warm up here or practice flat water play boating or just head down stream. You can also paddle upstream to a small rapid with a huge returning eddy perfect for teaching how to ferry or roll in moving water.
This is a rapid you can paddled upstream perfect spot to learn to ferry and also at certain flows has a nice surf wave.
This is the first rapid you come as you go down some good play here.
Lower Water Wave around 350cfs