Piedra
02. 1st Fork Bridge to Lower Piedra CG(First Box Canyon)
| Difficulty | III-IV+ |
| Length | 9.1 mi |
| Avg Gradient | n/a |
| Gauge | Piedra River Near Arboles, Co. |
| Flow Rate as of 1 hour | 127 cfsbelow recommended |
| Reach Info Last Updated | March 16, 2019 |
River Description
This section of the Piedra is an excellent class IV to IV+ run. To reach the put in, drive up the first fork road just East of where highway 160 crosses the river. The takeout is up this road also, just before the road leaves the river. If the gate is closed, you will have to run the upper section as well and do the long shuttle thing.
This run changed due to the flooding of 2005, and now the 2nd mudslide rock has 'opened up' a bit to make it slightly easier. Always scout this and consider portage or lining on the right and watch for wood!
River Features
Put In
First Mudslide
After two warm-up rapids, you get to First Mudslide. Eddy out river right just behind the large right wall. There is a trail here that provides easy scouting. Keep an eye out for snakes and poison ivy.
You can go either right or left. The left line is a bit more accessible. stay about three / four feet from the left bank. The right line is a sweet delayed boof.
Avoid Center, there is a bad pin rock.
Second Mudslide (Eye of the Needle)
This rapid has changed a bit over the years and has gotten a bit easier. That said, it is still challenging.
Line up just right of center and carry speed through. You may get pushed up on the pillow rock and flip, this happens pretty often at higher levels. If you find yourself upside down, hang on and wait for a sec. There is a short pool below the drop before you get into the lead out.
Take Out
Trip Reports
Log in to add a reportI called the forestry service (5/08/09) and they told me that the bridge has been removed, but be sure and scout ahead just incase they were misinformed. Also, no word on the giant tree blocking most of the river (at low flows) a mile or two downstream of the bridge. If it is still there, there was a small opening on river right last time I ran it. Be safe and have fun - John B.
05/23/05 we ran this stretch at >3,500. Expect several big water-style class V drops that would be very, very difficult to portage, in addition to the mentioned mudslide drops. Both mudslides can be easily portaged; however, if you elect to also portage the runout (V-V+ @ >3,500) to Mudslide #2 it's possible to carry down river-right then lower boats to a good launch point at bottom of runout. This whole lower section is markably more difficult and constricted than the top section at high water.
Hi everybody, I was just looking at the site and found a couple of the rapids named incorrectly.
The rapid in the pictures above that is named Eye of the Needle is one of the first drops of the lower (first) box and could be First Mudslide Rapid or Little Eye.
The drop that is labeled Mudslide is actually the Second Mudslide Rapid or Eye of the Needle. When you look at the picture you can see that the left line looks pretty bad and has caused alot of swims over the years. It has lead to alot of bad situations because the runout below, if you go left, is a pretty technical boulder garden (V) that I sometimes consider harder than the right move around 'pillow rock.'
Just wanted to help out, John
Entering the 1st Box
1st major rapid of the run. Hero route is the boof on river rt over a large hole. Left line is straight forward punching the river-wide hole at the run-out.
This is the large rock in the middle of the drop that all the current flows into. There is a breaking curler that pushes from rt to left at the bottom of the drop which wants to push you dirctly into this large rock. I punched the curler with too much lft to rt angle and ended up being flushed directly into the pillow rock but was luckily pushed rt after 2 good backstrokes, flipping, and being held breifly. Left of the large rock is a nasty hole that would be difficult to get a rope to or any immediate rescue from.
IMO this rapid is a mandatory scout on your first run.
Cold Water!
This is what I look like when I screw-up a Class V line. Luckily I was completely un-injured. (See Pillow rock for explanation)
Decent line at Mudslide. Entering the top rapid from lft to rt with about 1:00 angle, punching the curler and finishing with a 5 foot boof against the rt wall or rt side of the pillow rock at the bottom.
CORT trip.
Eye entrance.
CORT
Yeah, you want to avoid that hole!