South Platte

My wife and I took our Pack rafts on their maiden river voyage here. It is was a great place to learn. Started at Hwy 67 and took out at the confluence. There was only 1 section towards the end which I'm guessing is called 'The chutes' which is a bit scary for newbs like us. We never swam but bounced off a rock pretty good. If we did swim, there was a nice Olympic pool at the end.

CFS was @ 205 and we did hit bottom in some sections but could have avoided if we knew how to read the river better. Any higher would be perfect. There were A LOT of tubers, so a great place to look cool. We will be back to practice for the more intimidating Foxton!

Ran this in packrafts at 200. It looked really low from the road but it was fine, could be done this low in kayaks too with hitting maybe a few more rocks. The previous comment about cables and 'no trespassing' signs is correct, however, the law in Colorado is that you can float through the river here as long as your feet do not touch the ground, so you can paddle there but not fish. There are not cables or barbed wire preventing you from floating through here but there are signs. Due to the popularity of fishing close to Deckers, we decided to start a few miles down. Other than the chutes, which are awesome and can be scouted from the road, the nicest, most fun section is actually from about a mile past the chutes to a little past the next bridge. Many options to make this run longer or shorter, some of the parking lots are free, most are not. A nice, mellow class II float close to the Front Range, with one short Class III drop in the chutes. Even if you swam here, you would end up in a calm, flat pool.

Ran this on 4/24/16 @ 220cfs. Lower Runnable. We didn't go up as high as Deckers. We put in about 5miles above the confluence with the N. Fork. Mostly easy class I and II with a couple of II+ drops and one really cool class III rapid that has a few technical moves and then funnels into a narrow slot between huge granite domes. Pretty stretch. Would be a great way to lengthen and warm up for a Waterton Canyon run.

Don't mess with the first 3.3miles downstream (North) of Deckers Rt.126 bridge (at intersection beside shops) because there are low bridges and some jerk has put up 'No Trespassing' signs with cables across the river... Beyond that river bridge at 3.3miles, the river is clear & ripe for paddling. Platte River Rd follows the river & there are many parking areas. You'll see many tubers floating down the river & fishermen on the banks. At medium water level, this stretch of river has several fun Cl II-III rapids with fast flatwater in between.