Sespe Creek

The last quarter-mile or so of Sespe before the canyon mouth is the most interesting. In this section, known as 'Devil's Gate,' enormous piles of boulders largely prevent boating and turn the trip into a caving adventure with kayaks. The largest free-standing boulders I have ever seen were here; they dwarf those found in Yosemite Valley. As Charles Foster puts it on his Sespe Creek page, 'these are the sequoias of the boulder world.'

Richard

We ran this last year in 2.5 days moving at an average to fast pace.

The portaging was strenuous but never really required complicated rope work. Most rapids went well and most (maybe all) portages were pretty short...only one drop at a time. I don't think any portage took us more than 20 minutes (lots of effort for sure but not as bad as some runs).

We found really great campsites both nights. Its a cool place for sure. But it was a lot of effort for the quality of drops. It was a one time run for me...glad I did it...don't want to do it again.

There are reports of folks running pretty much everything.

Last spring Brian Baker and myself ran Sespe Creek over the period of 4 long days. We did this using a 10 foot SOTAR self bailing raft. The flow was less than we wanted when we put in. I would estimate it to be around 70-80 cfs at the put in and around 200 or so at the take out. We did lots of dragging in the first 6-7 miles. As the canyon grew narrower the rafting became very enjoyable allowing us to run many outstanding drops. We had planned on 3 days for our trip but portaging a raft with two people is tough work and caused us to stay on the river for a fourth day. I have run Sespe 3 times, two times by kayak, 1991 and 1996 and last year 2005 by raft. The AWA site says 1000cfs is a OK flow but 1000cfs would be very pushy in many spots. If you are planning on running this for the first time I suggest a flow between 200-500cfs and a minimum flow of 150cfs. At these lower flows the upper section might be a bit boney but the flow will pick up and you will enjoy drop after drop in the lower canyon and not feel like you are pushing the envelope. Sespe is like nothing else in California and should be on every adventure boaters to do list.