Farmington
3. Tariffville Park (Simsbury) to Highway 187 (Tariffville Gorge)(Tville)
| Difficulty | II-III |
| Length | 1.7 mi |
| Avg Gradient | 15 fpm |
| Gauge | Farmington River at Tariffville, Ct |
| Flow Rate as of 27 minutes | 1.92 ftmedium runnable |
| Reach Info Last Updated | July 15, 2019 |
River Description
Tville (as it's called by locals) contains some of the most popular and consistent whitewater in Connecticut.
You can either run the river or park and play. Most boaters choose to park and play. To park and play, park at the end of Tunxis Ave. on the East Granby side, and walk down the dirt trail to the river. From here you can access the majority of the play features Tville has to offer, and still walk back up to your car when you're done.
Most boaters that run the river put in at Tariffville Park and takeout either at Tunxis Ave. (which avoids the slightly tougher sections of the gorge) or takeout after the former location of the broken dam.
Most evenings in the summer a solid crowd of friendly and inviting paddlers can be found throwing down in Tville's great play holes. Boaters from all over the area come here because there's consistent flows, year round, that provide a variety of options for play and river running. Stop by and check it out, you won't be let down.
2.4 feet on the gauge is considered to be the best playboating level at the lower, main hole. It can be surfed down to about 1.5 feet, and starts to flush out around 2.7 feet. However, at 3.0+ feet, a hole above this feature called Babylon begins to form that offers some good rides.
Tville is, however, not without some areas for concern. There are a series of concrete bridge abutments that have been the site of a fatality due to a pinned boater. These abutments supported the bridge that connected Tunxis Ave. in East Granby to Tunxis Ave. in Tariffville. They are located on the river left and river right side of the river where it passes Tunxis Ave. They can be safely navigated down the center of the river, or for a more challenging and bumpy ride, on the river right side. They're not an overwhelming dangerous feature, but boaters should make a point to never come into physical contact with the abutments when traveling down river to avoid a pin.
Pr
...River Features
Put In
Bridge Abutments
The bridge abutments can be safely navigated down the center of the river, or for a more challenging line, on river right. These abutments were the site of a fatality when a boater became pinned there. Exercise caution.
Main Hole
This hole, and several surrounding it, are the most popular features on this section of the river. The majority of boaters park at the end of Tunxis Ave and walk or paddle down to this location and surf. You can either walk back up to the parking lot from this point if you like.
Take Out
Trip Reports
Log in to add a reportInquisition ledge at 5ft showing tongue on river left
Inquisition ledge at 5ft on the gauge. There is a tongue on river left
6/14/2013 old dam site and immediately above, ~7pm, gauge 7.12' = ~7000cfs, with Mike Campbell and Andy Kuhlberg, investigated new high water waves at and above the site of the removed dam. New big surf is 'Brave New Wave.' Several big, pulsing waves, the new hole at the last ledge 'Inquisition' very retentive at least down to 3.5'. Best surfs at this level were not optimal for playboats (too short) or slalom boats (too long); would have favored boats 7-9' long. Posting 10 photos and videos when site problems are cleared.
Farmington River, Tariffville Gorge, gauge @3.8' ~2200cfs, old bridge piers 'the Abutments,' most downstream (4th) pier on Tariffville (west) side, new strainer completely blocking river-right channel. Danger persists at all levels until tree is removed. Location: [41.905576, -72.760363]
Tariffville Gorge at 5.5-5.6 feet...
At 5.5 feet, the T'ville park 'n play spot is where the dam was. Andy Kuhlberg is dead on about the good surfing there. Ran into him there and tried it all out. Good eddy service for the small wave (~2 foot, named 'velcro'?) on river left, and if you're lucky you can ferry onto the bigger waves (5-6ft) in the center of the river. Not easy in a playboat though... an Axiom or Pirouette ought to manage it very nicely. You can also carry up, paddle into the flow and try to catch it on the fly, but it's hard to slow down enough to stay on the wave. Andy caught a good ride on it on his last pass today. There's also a good secondary wave just behind and surfer's left of the 2 ft. wave that's not too hard to catch.
And at 5.5 feet, there is as much water flowing through T'ville as the Kennebec on a normal release day, so it's very fast, with some big water boils on the eddy lines, reminiscent some of the squirrely eddy lines on the Ottawa.
Up at the normal play spot, the water is in the trees and with a little effort you can ferry into Klingon, which is about a 5 ft high wave hole with a big foam pile. And Pencil Sharpener, behind it, is a somewhat lower wider wave hole. Looks like it could be a lot of fun once you get past the intimidation factor. Andy and I each tried it a few times. It's very easy to bust through everything... not retentive at all. Definitely could toss you around some though. But beware that you have to paddle pretty hard left to get into the eddy... I rolled on one pass and washed down over the small ledge at the end of the pool before I could get back over to the left.
Be very careful about running down from the playhole to the dam site. Others have posted about the very large hole on river right, just at the top of where the dam pool used to start. At 5.5 foot, it looks very very uninviting. Even getting past it on river left is not so simple. There is a sizable swirly eddy on river left just above the drop, formed by some rocks on the left, that is not too hard to get into. From there, there is a sneak route on the left bank that Andy and I both took but we had to get over/past a 6' partly submerged log blocking access. One could also go just to the right of the rocks forming that left eddy, but at this level even the water on the approach to the drop is very boilly, and there is a seam you have have to get across that looks like it could stop you, especially in a smaller boat. I don't think anyone knows yet how retentive the hole on river right is, but it looks like it could give you a thorough thrashing at a minimum (think Phil's right side on the Ottawa). I'd say that spot is definitely class IV and on the way to class V at 5.5 ft.
You can hike up from the dam and get somewhat of a view of that drop from below, but it's hard to see the details, so definitely exercise due care. At the dam itself though, although the water is boilly and fast-moving, the wave play is a III-III+. You just have to manage the boils and work to get back to the sides of the river.
Hi I'm looking for people to boat with in and around Connecticut. I just moved here from Montana and it hasn't been easy meeting boaters. If you need someone to paddle with who's a solid class IV river runner, with some V and creeking experience please drop me a line or a note. Thanks, Cooper 860-575-8473 cooper.waldron@gmail.com
This is far from professional advice, but since I felt like there was little information besides what the river is like at the 'optimal' level, I thought I'd share my opinion of what I experienced at 5.2 on the gage.
Also, rivers are constantly changing and any information which I have provided here may not still be true as of your reading this. If in doubt, always scout!
The river is high enough that most of the trees are now potential strainers and some attention should be given to them. The bridge abutments are completely covered and unnoticeable (besides the power lines which are above them) other than a slight pile below the lowest abutment on the right. I found no good eddy to stop at after I took the bend just after the gazebo until after the bend just after the bridge abutments. The final rapid was a big surprise as, right below the typical play hole, a rather large hole (at least 2 or 3 times the size of the typical play hole) opened up at river center and was surprisingly sticky). All in all, this would be a good level for an intermediate paddler, preferably one with a solid combat roll. It's a bit of a stressful section if you have a beginner with you, though.
-Matt
Surfing the Main Hole in the Tville Gorge
Tville has it all, cool folks and good boating.
A Tville staple, this man, he's even in the American Whitewater 2009 Calendar with this photo. If you see him, be sure to give him a high-five.