Crandall Creek
Trailhead to Clarks Fork Yellowstone R.
| Difficulty | III-V |
| Length | 4.7 mi |
| Avg Gradient | 85 fpm |
| Gauge | Clarks Fork Yellowstone River Nr Belfry Mt |
| Flow Rate as of 58 minutes | 3320 cfsrunnable |
| Reach Info Last Updated | June 17, 2026 |
River Description
From the Bridge over Crandall Creek, every paddler's eye is immediately drawn to the churning waters funneling into a 5-foot wide, 25-foot long chasm carved through the solid granite. Though routinely portaged, this is a most impressive drop and an exciting way to kick off a run down this oft-overlooked gem.
A tributary of the Clarks Fork, Crandall Creek is the Box's baby brother. Throughout the run, sheer cliff walls reaching up to sixty feet tower overhead, closing to less than a boats' length in several places before reaching the confluence with the Clarks Fork. The water is crystal clear, vacillating between the deep greens of the large pools and a rich turquoise. Though the whitewater tops out at class IV+, scouting all blind drops is advised as some lines could prove to be disastrous. The rapids are unique and evenly spaced, providing a great opportunity for solid Class III-IV boaters to add some new tricks to their bag.
Crandall Creek is an outstanding intermediate run for the up-and-coming creek boater, sporting fewer objective hazards and a much lower volume than other sections of the Clarks Fork. It can easily be combined with the
or
for a full day of diverse whitewater.
Paul Kopczynski, Billings, MT 406/259-3408
PICK UP A MONTANA SURF GUIDEBOOK IF YOU ARE COMING TO THIS AREA!
The various reaches of the Clarks Fork Drainage:
Styx and Stones (Class V+/VI),
The Upper (Class IV/V+),
Honeymoon (Class IV/V+),
...River Features
Put In
Take Out
Trip Reports
Log in to add a reportJune 13 2026, Fun times! - Kaleb Wallace
Jun 16, 2026
Figured I'd add a report here since there's not much info. We only ran from the bridge down to the honeymooner takeout. It's a super fun and beautiful stretch, it's easy to scout and portage pretty much every rapid. There is some wood below the bridge that you need to walk a bit to see, it's worth walking down a bit to check it out, right now you could just barely paddle over a 3-5 ft section of it, as the water comes down you likely won't be able to and you can't see it until it's too late to get out of the water. Speaking about level, the gauge used for this run on here (belfry) does not correlate, I attached a photo of what it looked like under the bridge for reference. A few youtube videos ran it at the same purported level and the water was ~3 ft higher when we were there compared to the videos. It was pretty high and I would say at this level you better be a solid class 4 boater, a lot of the rapids were bordering class 5 I thought because of the pushiness, likely high consequence of a missed line, and stacked drops. With the exception of the tight chute that you can see from the bridge we ran every rapid though and they were all a blast! Get after it!
