Piru Creek

Middle Piru Creek between Frenchmans Flat and Piru Lake is a beautiful Class IV wilderness run with incredible scenery and geology. It can be runnable for a few days immediately during and after large winter rain storms, or for longer periods during very wet winters. In the near future, releases from Pyramid Dam will be tailored to providing an increase in boating opportunities as compared to the present situation. American Whitewater has been leading the effort to obtain these additional boatable days for this spectacular whitewater run.

Getting There

Piru Creek lies just to the west of the Grapevine section of Highway I-5, north of Los Angeles.

Put-in: From the Highway 126 junction in Castaic, take I-5 north, 10.5 miles to the Templin Highway junction. Turn left (west) under the freeway, then immediately turn right onto Golden State Highway. Travel 5.2 miles to Frenchmans Flat Campground ( Google map).

Take-out: Take I-5 to Castaic. Take Highway 126 west, 11 miles to the town of Piru. Turn right on Center Street and go 7/10 mile to Orchard Street and turn right. Travel 2/10 mile on Orchard, then turn right on Piru Canyon Road. Travel 6.5 miles to the Piru Lake boat ramp. ( Google map).

Note: Be aware that there may be barbed wire across the river about 2 miles or so before the creek flows into Lake Piru, and NYLON FENCE and BARBED WIRE slightly further downstream. This creek has many strainers and pinning spots. The creek is normally boated at fairly low flows, so it is usually not disastrous, but if things go wrong you have very few opti

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