Clear Creek

A tributary of the Sauk River that enters near Clear Creek Campground a couple miles southeast of Darrington. The most commonly-paddled section is located in the middle of the drainage, above Asbestos Falls and below where FR 2060 crosses over the creek. It’s only about 2.5 miles in length but includes about 2 miles of quality whitewater when other nearby runs are on the medium-high side. Putting in at the bridge, there is a short section of class III that will probably feel on the low side when the main attraction is at a nice flow. Things start to steepen until you find yourself eddy hopping through several fun boulder garden and pool-drop style rapids. At moderate flows they will get up to class IV-IV+ in difficulty, and with more water the small lulls between rapids will run together and get into the V- range. A great little section of whitewater! You will want to make sure you can recognize your takeout, after the river mellows out and gets closer to the road, and before it starts dropping steeply into the gorge above Asbestos Falls.

There are other sections of the creek that have been paddled, but will involve more difficult access, wood issues, unrunnable rapids, or all of the above.

Above the typical put in bridge is a steep section that can collect wood, and wasn’t clean as of early 2021.

Below the takeout the creek steepens quickly before going off of Asbestos Falls. The falls have been run, but with less than positive reviews. This portion of the creek might be better as a summertime canyoneering destination.

Below the Asbestos gorge, there are three more gorge sections separated by open boulder gardens and a couple brief flat stretches before the confluence with the Sauk.

After about 0.75 miles of flat water you arrive at a left then right bend into a brief steep large boulder garden that has some possible IV-V runnable slots at moderate flow as well as sieves, tapering into IV-III that separates into two channels around

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