Daniel Creek
to Bear Creek
| Difficulty | V+ |
| Length | 4.4 mi |
| Avg Gradient | 81 fpm |
| Reach Info Last Updated | April 14, 2024 |
River Description
According to 'thebigone,' in Boater Talk, this has been run a few times. It needs a lot of water, and the driving force for running it is not too strong, because by running it, you miss some of the kewl drops of Bear Creek, including Stairway to Heaven, Surrealistic Pillow, and Big Bang.
The takeout for this reach would be the same as the takeout for the Bear. The last couple of miles are on Bear. (The listed mileage includes that part of the Bear; the gradient comes only from Daniel Creek.)
There's some info on the area in the Cloudland Canyon State Park site.
A neat feature of the park is that there are caves located under the riverbed. If you hike down to the falls in the summer/dry season you can hear water in the creekbed draining into some underground grotto.
Some more info: In the early 90's there were some access issues with Bear Creek that AWA was able to work out. The short version of the story is that the park rangers were not crazy about people risking thier necks kayaking thru a state park.
Local kayakers had been boating Bear for a number of years discreetly before a visiting group of boaters from out of state pulled into the park and asked the Rangers where the put-in was. The Rangers reacted by banning all boating thru the park.
One look at the topo maps will show how difficult an evacuation would be. The good news about Bear Creek is that it starts outside the park, and ends outside the park.
To run Daniel Creek will mean pulling into the main parking area in the park, then carrying all of your gear down about twice as many stairs as there are at Tallulah to get to the Put-In. This will probably be in full view of tourists and rangers. My advice would be to be discreet.
These is an
...River Features
Put In
Take Out
Trip Reports
Log in to add a reportDaniels is fun! The top-down option is pointless since you miss Bear and walk the stairs, then the next falls (a 33'er into 3' of water - might go if high water). Instead, hike up from Bear on the downstream side of Daniels (shortly below Armegeddon on river left)- there is somewhat of a tral (like Cooper) and you'll put in just a couple drops down from the 30'er. While the 10'er below it is fun, there is an unrunnable rapid just below that so I usually put in just below the clearly unrunnable drop when you can see the 10'er and 30'er ahead
.
The first drop is a cool crack/falls you'll want to keep your bow right on.
There is also a nice double drop (4' into 5'), a technical 8' boof between rock and a log, some junk, then a cool flume /crack thing that can be snuck right. Super-technical precision boating. Best when Bear is 15+'' or the rain was recent. You'll drop right back into Bear ready for the 'gnars'.
I've got 5 runs in, it's perfect when there's not quite enought time for a second run or you just want some hard, more technical rapids.
Clay
The takeout for this run at Park entrance is now closed and has been for some time. The Park is building a new trail with heavy equipment. Ther area is HEAVILY posted with signs telling visitors they will be ticketed and their cars will be towed if they park at the lower entrance to the Park.
According to Clay Wright, Daniel has some good drops that can be run in conjuction with Bear by hiking up a half mile from the confluence. Sounds like a workout to me.