Teton

This run is the top half of two very different, outstanding, and relatively popular whitewater runs. These runs, which are often combined, flow through a deep scenic canyon, with pockets of lush forest, dry forest, and dramatic cliff bands. Paddlers in the canyon can scarcely fathom that feet from the canyon rim is an expansive flat agricultural landscape. The large drainage area grants the Teton a long recreation season that is treasures by local and traveling paddlers.

From Highway 33 to the Felt Hydroelectric Project is a classic challenging section of the Teton with numerous class IV and V rapids. The run starts off with several miles of flatwater before booming. When you get to the Felt Hydropower Project, be sure to get out on river right above the dam. At this point you can hike up the hill on the jeep trail 460 vertical feet to the parking lot on the canyon rim, or portage the dam and the nasty rapid below it on the access roads for more fun below. At this point you can paddle Boneyard, a Class V rapid between the 2 powerhouses (and hike out or keep going), or put in near the second powerhouse and continue down the Class III (IV) lower section.

Below the Project is one class IV rapid that can be portaged near the mouth of Badger Creek, followed by a delightful series of five big water class III rapids reminiscent of the New River Gorge in West Virginia. The scenery and fishing in this reach are outstanding, and the run transports paddlers into a canyon that was briefly inundated beneath the reservoir of the ill-fated Teton Dam. Paddlers can still see the effects of the reservoir failure in hillside slumps which reportedly created the 5 big rapids and pools that define the canyon, but the canyon otherwise offers unbroken solitude and natural scenery. Some paddlers enter this reach via the Class IV+ Bitch Creek, with flows in from river right. You can also hike down the access road to the Felt Hydro Project from the parking area on the rim and l

...