Fall River
2. Concrete CCC Bridge to Kirkham Bridge(Lower Run)
| Difficulty | III-IV |
| Length | 8.5 mi |
| Avg Gradient | n/a |
| Gauge | Fall River Nr Squirrel Id |
| Flow Rate as of 41 minutes | 1270 cfsrunnable |
| Reach Info Last Updated | June 11, 2025 |
River Description
At moderate flows the Fall River is a fun run and an excellent river to build your skills on. Smooth boulders create countless nice eddies, small boofs, and surf holes, allowing paddlers to challenge themselves with Class IV moves in relatively low risk Class II and III rapids.
The run is mostly long, large, class 3+ wave trains at higher flows, and technical Class III boulder rapids at medium and lower flows. The longest rapid, half-mile, has a hole hidden at the end (look for a large basalt cliff on your right and a slight river left bend). There is a diversion dam that you may portage about 2/3 way down river, or you can run it just look for wood and if the river is too high it can recirculate. You can see the last major drop by a rock that sticks up right in the middle of the river, also a surprise at the bottom of a wave train. Run left (preferred) or right to avoid pourovers.
Each spring flushing flows between the upper diversion dam and the powerhouse are required by the hydropower license to maintain 1,450 cfs for the last three weeks in May or the first three weeks in June. This is in place to ensure the removal of accumulated sediments in the Fall River riverbed downstream of the diversion structure. There is also a requirement each year during the July 4 weekend to provide a minimum flow of 650 cfs in the Fall River downstream of the diversion structure during daytime hours for recreation purposes.
See also G. Amaral, Idaho: the Whitewater State (Watershed, 1992).
Lat/Longitude data are very approximate.
...Directions: To the takeout: drive 4.5 miles east on Hwy 47 from Ashton ID. Turn right (south) and drive 1.5 miles to Kirkham bridge over Falls River. This is the take-out for kayaks only. If you are in a raft go to 3800 East. Take out on the left side of the river above the bridge and drag your boat up the rocks with some friends. yes its not ideal for rafts but it way easier
River Features
Put-in
The land on the river left downstream side of the bridge is owned by Freemont County, and is the only public land at the put in.
Half-Mile Rapid
This is where the fun starts. This is a long wave train, with plenty of holes and rocks to play around with, At higher flows this would not be a plesant place to swim as the current gets pretty fast in here.
Diversion Dam
This is a diversion dam, there has been wood at the bottom of this in the past, I typically scout from the left. shore. There are many line options, at 1600 cfs, boaters typically go down the right side.
Bobs Nemises
Upper Take-out
Typical Take Out
Hike out on river left just after the bridge, park on river right, respect private property. Typical kayaker take-out.
Raft Take Out
Good public take out on County land, river left, upstream of the bridge.
Trip Reports
Log in to add a reportAt this flow from the put in to the take out at 3800 took 2 hours. That is without stopping to scout the dam. At this level all sides of the dam ran well. However, I would not run the right side in a raft at this level since less water goes over that side and the cement there is rough. Kayaks ran it great. It must have been a low water year since it was not running at 1400 as required by the permit. That being said it was still glorius and splashy
Ran on 6/1/2021 at 2400 in a kayak super fun and pushy. A swim would be a long one at these flows. Rafts and kayak both do equally well at these levels. Ran multiple times and did left side of dam. At these flows there is no recirculation on the left side just a big fun wave to punch through. Actually, as flows go up the left side gets safer while the right side starts to recirculate.
Ran this on May 7th at 1600 and this really took away all the rock garden features and turned it into large wave trains. There was no wood and there still was lots of snow on the north facing aspects of the river. At this flow the diversion dam has no recirculation on either side and that makes the left side super fun to run with the tall standing wave. We did it in multiple types of craft with no problem. Bob's revenge is super fun at the end at this flow with a huge standing wave. Take out at the power plant.
Ran this Jul 19 at 225 cfs in packrafts and a Pack Cat. Very shallow and bony, continuous challenging maneuvering to avoid rocks. Warm water, rapids all just a matter of not getting stuck. Had to get out and carry over rocks once for ~40 feet. Portaged the dam (left side only open, very shallow, just walked down the right side where it is normally run). Fun, slow, feasible.
Ran this on July 4 through 6 at 640 and 670 and it was still really fun. At this level we still got a 13 foot raft down and a bunch of newbies in duckies. The bigger stretches become more pool drop rapids with places to recover. At this level this is a class III river there are no class IV moves. We ran the dam again on the right but at this level it gets sticky sliding down the dam but we still made it and there is no standing wave on the right at all.
Ran this on June 5 at 2400 approx. It was lots of big waves and no rocks. Made the run much easier than medium water. Super fun in 14 ft raft, 12 foot cataraft and 14 ft cataraft and spent the whole run hitting holes on purpose. The damn is still super safe on the right side approximately 20 feet off the right bank. We run the dam at all water levels with all types of craft. The end class IV has a nice stand up wave. You can always miss it by running left, but why would you? My advice to anyone running inflatables take out at 3800 E as it crosses the river. This site is much easier to get out of than Kirkham bridge. You only have to get your boat up a 10 foot slope as opposed to a 100 yard boat haul followed by walking it over another 50 yards to the parking lot. If you fell out at this level 2400 you would have a long swim if you were running a Duckie etc.
I don't agree with the description of this run as class 4. I ran this in mid july of 2017 at medium flows. I was in a packraft and still fairly new to whitewater. It was a nice challenge but I never felt intimidated. Most of it is class 2+ with one harder class 3 rapid with a wave/hole that flipped a couple people.
Just ran it at 2100 in a SOTAR legend 14 foot and a JP Culebra. Great fun hole punching the whole way down. At this level punching Bob's nemesis was a blast with those boats. An experienced person in a Duckie would be great at this level. But a swim would be long. Also past Bob's nemesis and just beyond the spigot with the warning signs is a large submerged log on river left that look like a great pour over but in actuality has lots of spikes coming out of it that you can't see that would rip a hole in your boat. This is easy to see if you know its coming so heads up. Also I have run this many times and this is the easiest I have ever run the Dam. However, I never portage it.
A crew that was participating the Packraft Roundup rallied over to the Fall River and had an absolute blast. It was a fun day of playing hard and pushing skills on an ideal river for skill-building at a great flow.