Tates Creek

Tates Creek is one of the jewels of whitewater filled Madison County, KY. Tates is usually the first or second (after the East Prong of the Otter) creek that should be run for paddlers on a tour de Madison after a big rainstorm as it comes up and goes down very fast - typically only holding its flow for a few hours.

Tates Creek runs along and may be scouted from KY 169. It is essentially a series of non-stop class II-III surfing waves and holes with very few flat sections or defined 'drops'. At high water levels some of the holes can become quite retentive but are usually easily avoided by the alert paddler.