Savage Creek
Savage Gulf
| Difficulty | I |
| Length | 5.7 mi |
| Avg Gradient | 130 fpm |
| Reach Info Last Updated | April 12, 2024 |
River Description
First off, the run is ILLEGAL.
More, from one of the local area boaters, From Boatertalk:
Date: Mar 12 2004, 22:32 GMT
From: clayw
Yeah, some folks 'ran' it. Portaged the falls, scraped down the class 3, then realized their mistake - They got sink-holed out, it got dark, they hiked into the park leaving shuttle drivers waiting downstream. Park intervened: 'NO boating in Savage.' It is a natural area and it will be hard to convince anyone you won't be stepping on plants!
They did say we could run Big Creek but similar problems - hike first.
If you must, only try when it's HIGH so you can boat after the first sink. Perhaps hike it first to know where the sinks are, and you've got a couple cool rapid and manky run-out to the old jeep road that connects to the hwy. When you run out of water, hike DOWNSTREAM - not into park unless your shuttle is waiting there :-)
Savage Falls is a sweet 27'er and worth hiking for (2 miles). Also illegal. You can be 100% enviro and still run it - trail crosses above and overlook below. Needs good water to be worthwhile; rumors of rocks in the pool but I haven't hit any.
Clay
Too bad it was too low when those guys 'ran' Savage.
River Features
Put In
Take Out
Trip Reports
Log in to add a reportI was just hiking in the Collins Gulf - one of the three gorges in the Savage Gulf Natural Area - with water in the creek looking mighty boatable. Access issues aside, I found myself thinking why isn't this in the AW database. I saw several good Class IV drops and a lot of III boogie, then I came to Horsepound Falls. A lot of water went over the falls, but less than half the flow appeared to be running out of the bottom of the pool. Just downstream a trib of the Collins mostly disappears into a cave on the left not too far above the Collins. Back at my car and reading the guidebook, I learned that much of the creeks flow sinks at Horsepound Falls. Further downstream, the entire creek disappears into a sink at most flows. Both Savage and Big Creek pull the same stunt. Now, there's a reason why you can't read about the Collins River here.
Dude, I got bad vibes when I saw the sink at this place. It's illegal .... fine.