Virgin, N. Fork

Packrafted this 5/15&16/17 at 220-240 cfs. Hiked to Deep Creek which about tripled the flow. Would have been a tough, tough hike with hard boats - in and out of the water, squeezing thru vegetation, slippery, too shallow to float. I'm not sure at what level you could float from the ranch - maybe 400 cfs? The 15 ft waterfall is above Deep Cr and mostly blocked by a river-wide log about 3 ft above the water. Might be runnable with the right flow, but you'd launch while hunched over underneath the log. Easy obvious portage. Pretty easy paddling after Deep Creek with a handful of portages due to river-wide wood. Spent about 8 hours paddling from camp at Kolob Creek to Springdale, including a hike in Orderville and lots of scouting in the mile or so of class 4ish boulder garden near the park entrance. I'd call it a class 2 float at that level, but pretty unforgiving of lost of damaged gear or an injury. Getting out without a boat would be really hard. Logistics: You need a permit, which can be picked up from the backcountry permit office beginning at 7 am. Special floating rules: no hiking if the flow is over 150 cfs, and boating only if the flow has been between 150 and 600 for the last 24 hours. You can start your trip the day you pick up the permit if you are boating. There is good camping between Chamberlain Ranch and the park boundary and at 12 designated sites in the first half of the canyon within the park. It looks like the log jams come and go - be alert. You don't need to select or reserve a campsite. At the flow we had, you could pick up your permit, drive to the take out, hike in, and float the whole thing in a day, I think, but it would be close and rushed at best, and misses some of the point of being there.