Animas
08. 32nd St. Park to Purple Cliffs
| Difficulty | III |
| Length | 5.8 mi |
| Avg Gradient | 27 fpm |
| Gauge | Animas River at Durango, Co |
| Flow Rate as of 46 minutes | 935 cfsbelow recommended |
| Reach Info Last Updated | July 11, 2017 |
River Description
Josh Stone shared:
Here is some local Beta, hope it helps. The putin at 32nd Street is for the long run.
Once past the bridge on 32nd Street, you will enter a Class-II rock garden. Pick a line and enjoy. Then, after the rock garden, you will continue to float some quick water until you come to where an island divides the river. Go right and there is a good spot for old-school stern squirts. Proceed around the bend and there is a good set of Class-II waves that will get your face wet.
Past this is a railroad bridge with a good rock garden. At 1600 and below, take the river-right side. I say this because on river left there is what looks like a big wave, but it is actually water pushing straight into a big rock.
Next up is the most dangerous part on the river IMHO. This is the Main St. Bridge. Water crashes into all the pillars, so the best line is to take it far river left and line up to blast off the eddy line coming off of the pillar.
After this, keep bombing down the run, and soon you will go past the 9th St. bridge and under some other bridge. Once you go past this bridge, the river will bend to the left. Be ready to hit some fun Class II+-III- swamper waves. At 4,000 cfs, these waves get to be about 6-9 ft high. Below 1000 cfs, this offers some good creek-boating practice.
Afterwards, the river bends to the right and you are now at the whitewater park. The first rapid is the biggest and gets some notoriety. It is Smelter Rapid, which is where almost all the water funnels into a big haystack followed by some boily water. This haystack will knock you over, so have a good roll because afterwards is more continuous whitewater. At 4,000 cfs, I consider Smelter a class IV (some may disagree).
After Smelter is a Class-II+ rapid followed by Corner Pocket, which is where all the locals play. Corner Pocket is a good wave with a forgiving foam pile that offers up blunts, loops, cartwheels etc. Over 2800 cfs, Corner Pocket is a c
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Trip Reports
Log in to add a reportThe Santa Rita Park rapids have been completely redesigned, to my liking. At low water the left chute may be the only navigable way through the first man-made constriction. At high water the center chute provides a conservative run through the next series of drops. The left chute at all levels provides a much better ride although mid-rapid maneuvers are required.
I was passing through town recently and ran from the 32nd street park to the whitewater park at 1100cfs. I definitely concur with the description on the two tricky bridges. When the river takes a hard right under the train bridge, I ran the river left line and it was the most technical part of the river with lots of holes and boulders. I also ran the middle line on the Main St. bridge and it was pretty hairy. Most of the water is going through this middle section and rolling off the left wall. The entire right side is moving to the left (reminded me a bit of the weird stuff you get at the bottom of Grand Canyon rapids) and where they meet is a nasty boil line that took my boat down. It would definitely be worth getting out scouting the left line to verify it's clear and running it. The rest of the run was pretty much a nice class I float, until things pick up at Smelter.
This is what Smelter looks like at high water. It can easily flip rafts.
Smelter at low water still offers some play.
This rapid is immediately below Smelter in the WW park. It offers some decent surfing, and at high water it is one big stopper wave.