White

Attempted to run the white river on Saturday (2/14/26) from foothills recreation trail bridge, Buckley to game-farm-wilderness park in auburn,WA. There is a new rails-to-trails bridge (just east of the 410 hwy bridge) with a nice put in area, the trail is called “Pierce county & city of Buckley- foothills national recreational trail”, (692 N River Ave, Buckley, WA 98321, USA). We parked on the south side of the bridge. Gauge (white river at R street) was 1150 CFS. Given the large storms from December 2025, we anticipated lots of wood debris on the river. Initial rapids were lots of fun, in the 2 to 2+ range. Two spots with wood, required short portages around at 47.17095, -122.04237 and 47.23125, -122.11397. Near the large powerlines, there was a lot of gunshot sounds, rapid fire, and makes you wonder if the shooter is taking precautions for people on the river. Wood encountered at 47.24862, -122.13167, (see photo) we were not able to easily find a way around. With limited winter daylight, elected to hike out given the possibility of additional wood further on. The scwack up to the nearest road was type 2 fun. It will likely take time before that wood pile up is cleared, and there may be more below it.

Great long class 2 paddle, lots of fun wave trains, swift water, heavenly air in this wilderness corridor. Just a couple little easy wood portages... nothing too tricky. Last 3rd of the paddle got just a little scrapey it a few places. I wouldn't want to do this run at much lower flow. It took about 3.5 hours for 14.5 miles. We put in at the 410 bridge in Buckley and took out at the disc golf course bridge.

Packrafted down the White. There's a construction/water treatment access road on the east side of 410 to get down to the river where the put in is. There is an active construction site, but workers were away for the weekend so we didn't have any problem getting to the river (that might be different if you show up while work is happening). If you can't access here, I'm not totally sure where you'd put in . We put in a few hundred yards east of the 410 bridge spanning the river, wanted to get those first few rapids in. You can't park in front of the gates to the access road. There's parking by the Buckley Log Show venue. Easy 10 minute walk from the parking lot there down to access road along 410. Drop gear at the access road, park, then return and walk the short distance down the access road.

I really like this river at ~1900 CFS. Not much worry about scraping or bottoming out ever. Water moves pretty quick, but never feels out of control or overwhelming. Water is clearer than I've seen in the past, but still a bit turgid. Nonetheless at these flow rates, we never encountered any unexpected hazards. Wave trains are a lot of fun at these levels!! Really enjoy the river for having lots of features relative to other neighboring rivers, it keeps you engaged and a smile on your face. The first half of the run has the most rapids and wave trains, the second half starts to braid and the river widens a bit, but there's still the occasional feature to keep that smile on your face. Couple of the rapids throughout the run will blast you in the face if you want to take them on! Otherwise, for newer paddlers, you can easily navigate around most features you find intimidating. That being said a couple of wave trains thrust you into the thick of it and you're best bet is to stay upright and have fun!!

River is a pretty clean, no portages required, any hazards are easily avoidable. There were a couple of log jams to avoid but you can paddle clear of those as they don't span the whole river. Everything were able to read and run and never needed to leave the boats. If you're new to the river, make sure you're confident in the braids you follow, most hazardous braids are obvious, but if you turn down the wrong one you could be faced with a lot of wood debris jamming up the braid.

Quiet day in terms of wildlife, but love this stretch because it's one of the few contiguous stretches of river where you don't see houses/other signs of civilization. Feels remote despite it's proximity to towns and cities.  Pull out was easy at ballard park. Dropped a car there and then climbed up the banks, tossed our boats over the chain link fence before heading for home.

Hit the river on 8/28/20 in some duckies. CFS was around 750. First 5 miles from Buckley bridge full of great rapids was a ton of fun. Had 3 portages but could get out quite easily and was pretty obvious.we saw 6 eagles and a ton of wildlife. Is a great river for beginning kayakers looking for some adventure.

Ran the river today 06.28.2019 about 950cfs. Most of the wood is avoidable pretty easily. Two places were mandatory portage but easy to see and walk around the wood. There were several fishing nets and ropes to watch out for. Otherwise a good nice run. We went from Buckley to Auburn (game farm wilderness park) my GPS said it is 15.5 miles. Took us 3 hours and 15 minutes with the two portages and a couple breaks. Very scenic and consistent gradient. There is virtually no flat water on this run.

Ran this on Jan 21, 2019 at around 1200cfs. There were no real portages, but there were spots where we had to drag over shallow spots because the clean channels petered out. I was pleasantly surprised at how many rapids there were and how there was good gradient from beginning to end.

There is more wood in the river in the downstream sections (7/23/16). A few spots caused concern, but ultimately allowed a straightforward passage through.

Floated from Buckley to Auburn on Saturday, July 24 in inflatable kayaks (advanced elements airfusion). No log jams to portage and lots of great scenery. We hitchhike shuttled, which was successful from the take-out up to Hwy 164 and from Enumclaw down to the put-in, but had to resort to the King County Metro Bus 186 (accepts Orca card) between Auburn and Enumclaw.

The DOT lot on the north side of the river, west side of Hwy 410 has a locked gate, but there's enough room to pull off the road and unload boats in front of the gate. The treated effluent outflow structure serves as a very convenient dock for entry, just put in upstream!

I found this float to be a blast as a beginner paddler. Fairly constant little rapids, with a few splash-you-in-the-face wave trains. Great scenery and wildlife, with very few people. The downed trees added an element of doubt and a few look intimidating, but we were able to paddle past each log jam.

We took out just upstream of the R Street/Kersey Way bridge in Auburn, but wouldn't recommend it. Had to haul the boats up a steep pitch and toss over a low fence into Ballard Park.
Paddle this river!

Lots of downed trees along the bank, fairly easy to paddle around. Some require a more strenuous paddle to avoid the main channel that flows into the log jams.

Two of us packrafted this stretch on Sunday, 9/4. Putin at bridge on 410 in Buckley. Takeout was bridge on Kersey Way. Flow was around 800 cfs.

The flow was good enough that we hardly hit bottom the whole run. It was a perfect mix of rapids and bird/salmon watching for 2 beginners who have never rafted this stretch. Arguably, the funnest rapid, was just before the takeout of the bridge literally like 100 meters from it. The river constricts and the flow is fast with some good waves. Logs on left, but not an issue. Had so much fun, did it a couple times.

The amount of salmon in the river is phenomenal right now. Fish everwhere! Reminds me of movies I see about Alaska rivers. With that, there were also a ton of birds. We must have seen 12 bald eagles. We also saw a bunch of what maybe turkey vultures. Not sure, nonetheless, they were huge and cool to watch.

There was one section about halfway through where we portaged around a log crossing the river. I'm not sure if it was passable or not, but knew it wasn't for us. Other than that there were a couple other areas where logs jammed the majority of the river off, but we managed to pass by without an issue. Everything was identifyable early and there was plenty of time to get out of the water to check them out if need be.

We found access to the White River Gorge downstream of Mud Mountain Dam and then attained upstream a bit to explore this beautiful and rarely visited place that is upstream of the standard Highway 410 put-in.

Put-in at the Highway 410 bridge in Buckley.

Michael Deckert reads the geologic history of Puget Sound as the river cuts into glacial outwash deposits.
M
Most of the rapids are formed by shifting gravel bars but a few strategically placed boulders keep things interesting.
The White is a dynamic river with a lot of wood moving through and you can expect to encounter a log jam or two blocking the river.

The R Street Bridge in Auburn provides access on river left.
The A Street Bridge in Auburn provides access to the White River.

Most of the rapids on this stretch are formed by shifting gravel bars but some strategically placed boulders add some diversity in spots.