Campbell Creek

South Fork Gorge (Prospect Heights to Hilltop Ski Area)(South Fork Gorge of Campbell Creek)

DifficultyV
Length2.6 mi
Avg Gradient375 fpm
GaugeSf Campbell C Nr Anchorage Ak
Flow Rate as of 8993 days
32 cfsstale data
Reach Info Last UpdatedDecember 23, 2005

River Description

CRAZY CREEK! Be careful on this one folks, and watch out for wood. One mandatory portage around log jam. Another one about half way down (think its called from Heaven to Hell) should be looked at. Nasty little boulder garden that cascades 70 vertical feet in about 50 yrds. Definitely bring a short, tough creekboat and elbow pads (face cage would be good too:^)

Once in the gorge, Campbell Creek has rapids that are pretty much unscoutable and with no way to walk around them. You pretty much just go and pray there aren't logs as you drop over the edge. Constantly extremely steep and bouncy, especially throughout the middle of the canyon. Several undercuts and sieves. For experts only. Keep your paddle parallel with your boat at Mandatory Pin! Highly recommended to go with someone that knows the run.

To get there go to the Powerline Pass trail and hike your boat about 15 minutes towards the creek's intersection with the trail. Put in and paddle to your take-out at Hilltop ski area. Walk up gravel road 10 minutes to your car.

(Lat/Lng coordinates very rough guess, from Topozone)


River Features

Put In

Distance: 0 mi

Take Out

Distance: 1.7 mi
Take Out

TK
Todd Kelsey

Oct 16, 2004


Don't go to Powerline Pass, as suggested. It's a bit brushy. I think Tim means to say go to Prospect Heights and go from there.

Brad Roberts
Brad Roberts

Oct 6, 2003


Campbell Creek Carnage Fest trip-report- broken boats, faces, paddles!!!!!!! New

Forum: BoaterTalk

Date: Oct 07 2003, 0:21 GMT

From: making_ends_meet

Just thought I'd do a super quick carnage write-up on Campbell Creek Gorge- a local run that runs through town in Anchorage, Alaska. The boaters... Danny, Jason, Chad, Shaun, and myself(Tim). Jason cracked the bow of his Big Gun open(HUGE split/break)on one of the 1st drops. Everything went to hell from there. Danny dented in the bow of his Freefall LT about 2 inches and it has a crack as well. I chipped a nice size piece of my paddle off in the river. Jason got a bloody mouth on 'Psycho' rapid. Chad dented the front of his redline. 3 or 4 really nasty pins. An overall carnage fest. Campbell Creek is class V and was running at a medium level of 3.0 feet(100cfs). It drops 600 fpm off the face of the earth in a really deep canyon. Check out pictures of Campbell Creek on my website...

www.geocities.com/alaskawhitewater

have fun & be safe out there,

Tim