Clark Fork

I've paddled Alberton Gorge well over a hundred times and adore it, though I seldom took pictures. I am going to add some recent and older photos here as I run across them to spiff up the AW page and just for fun.

Submitting for reference as I haven't seen any posts about running this epic stretch above 20k.

Ran this yesterday evening at 27,000, and the day before at about 22,000. The river is definitely high and moving fast, but certainly runnable at this level. The upper section is fairly flat, but Cliffside 2 had one giant wave that was a good hit - and seal launching down the ramp is fun.

Lower gorge below Triple Bridges is big water, swirly class III+; Tumbleweed might qualify as IV- due to the big laterals and heavy swirls at the bottom. Fang had a big sticky wave. Definitely a different river than at lower levels - Split Rock, for instance, is completely underwater and a very big wave train.

GOOD TO GO - but have a good boat, competent class III+, IV- skills and friends with you. A swim at this flow might not be catastrophic if you're on-point, but could easily turn into a very big pain in the butt.

Purple cliffs tower over Alberton Gorge just upstream of Triple Bridges.

new online whitewater guide for montana area paddling - check it out!
www.montanaeddyhop.blogspot.com

A lot more rocks than I like to see for a family type
float.

Getting kicked into the eddy river left at Tumbleweed - yee haw!

I paddled Alberton July 19,05 with a level of about 3,900 cfs in my open boat. It is a classic western run with 2 or 3 class III rapids. The first 5 miles are very mild and there is an access point on river left. Most of the whitewater occurs in the next few miles starting at Triple Bridges. There is a river left access at the end of the whitewater so one could get 80% of the rapids in a 2-3 mile reach. I floated down to the standard takeout at Tarkio.

I want to stress that water levels and time of year are very important here. At higher levels with cold water this could be a much mlore challenging run. Low levels and warm water make it a lovely summertime intermediate whitewater reach. Access is easy. Follow the directings on this page.

Alberton makes a great place to take a break and paddle while driving on I-90. The run could easily be paddled in 2 hours. Chris Kelly

The surfing at the Gorge is best in the winter when the water is low

Tumbleweed (I got pulled into the whirlpool!)

Photo courtesy of, and copyright by, Randy Clark. See some of Randy's other pictures here!
Photo courtesy of, and copyright by, Randy Clark.

First time down lower gorge in hard boat. Punisher pounded my ass.

Cyr put in

upper gorge, before cliffside