Fossil Creek

Nov 13, 2024

We were impressed by this extremely beautiful creek, in a state that has very few paddling options in the fall. The water is ultra clear, flowing through a thick riparian area in the middle of Arizona, it feels out of place in a wonderful way. The pools were full of fish, and while I would describe the many travertine ledges, ramps and slides as 'silly', they were fun in a way children know that adults often forget. Seeing the area from a boat exceeded the already cool way of seeing it from shore.

At base flows around 50 cfs, I would not describe the whitewater as quality, though it did have it's moments. If you want quality whitewater, you need more than baseflow, around 150 cfs Iv'e read. If you just want to see a really cool place from your boat, base flow is fine.

Despite the small size making the whitewater less than great, I really appreciated the run and would definitely do it again, even at base flows. We used packrafts, but I would prefer a hardshell boat next time for better sliding and stronger material.

We went after permit season and camped at the Homestead access point.

I ran part of this run at 44 CFS. I'm going to be honest, while this has some fun and low consenquence drops, it's mostly low quality mank. At base flows it barely fits the definition of runnable. On one rapid early on, an overhanging tree branch pushed me sideways, I went down a rapid sideways, got my packraft pinned, and I ended up swimming a really boney rapid head first on my back, got a really nasty bruise on my lower back. Most of the rapids on here are the type of mank where you bounce around on rocks and barely make it down without getting stuck. I've done plenty of scrapey micro-creeking, but I found this one particularly not fun. Not reccomended. It might be a lot better with 100 cfs.

Boofing into a constricted series of small ledges.

I ran this yesterday from above the power house falls downto the bridge. Somekayakers ran the falls, but being in a canoe i portaged. The whitewater was constant, and very technical. one blade would make me rate it a III+ to a IV without hesitation. I ran into a lot of deadfall. BE CAREFULL! The drive there is sketchy, fossilcreek road goes through the drainage, and the Strawberry side is slightly faster and a lot cleaner.

Jerry Lovett 2/6/10 Ran the classic section from the 20 footer (not a 15' like the description Say's) to the power house yesterday at double base flow, probably 100 CFS. Perfect level! A big flood cleaned up the one pin rock we used to avoid and made it a perfect III chute, it's a whole different creek now. This is a fun creek run all year but if you can catch it a high flow it's a blast. Look for about 130 CFS on the West Clear creek gauge.

Well you might count the falls at a IV, but they are really easy. I would not say this is over a III+ though unless you are there on a monsoon flood. Fossil is one of my favorite places to kayak. It is very technical and just fun to play in.

We talked to a Forest Service ranger and he said that they were going to close this creek off to kayakers soon. So here goes another public area that the government is going to restrict. Their reasoning is that kayakers damage the build up of mineral deposits in the river. Kayak this while you can. It is fun!

I believe this is a 3 mile run if you go from the put in to the take out at the power plant. It is probably a 14 mile run if you go all the way to Verde river.

It is a mega fun run though... except the 2 mile hike in. Scout each rapid for debrie and pinning rocks. There are 2 bad pinning places that I know of.

Based on the description this is NOT a 14 mile run.

Hard to believe this was all damned up a few years ago.

Flat tire on the road in. This road tends to shred tires. Also double check to make sure your spare is inflated...