Canyon Creek, near Amboy in southwest Washington, is one of the Pacific Northwest’s most celebrated steep creeks. Dropping quickly through a tight forested canyon toward Merwin Reservoir, it offers a short but intense stretch of technical whitewater that has long attracted skilled paddlers during the spring runoff season.
Over the years, Canyon Creek has also been the site of a whitewater race during the spring paddling season — a grassroots event that takes place when local boaters and volunteers have stepped forward to organize it. It represents a community tradition that re-emerges periodically, depending on interest, conditions, and capacity.
When held, the race has served as both a paddling challenge and a gathering point for the regional creek boating community.
Origins in River Protection and the Hydropower Threat
The Canyon Creek race has a deeper history than competition alone. Its roots are closely tied to efforts to protect Canyon Creek from hydropower development.
In the early 1990s, a private developer pursued a small hydroelectric project on the creek, supported by a preliminary permit issued through the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). The proposal would have diverted water out of the natural channel, potentially dewatering key rapids and fundamentally altering one of Washington’s premier creek runs.
Local paddlers, conservation advocates, and American Whitewater recognized that the fight was about more than recreation — it was about keeping Canyon Creek free-flowing and preventing the loss of a unique river corridor.
One of the ways the boating community responded was by organizing events on the creek, including early races and gatherings, to highlight the creek’s value and build public awareness. These efforts helped demonstrate that Canyon Creek was not an unused drainage but a meaningful recreational and ecological resource.
Ultimately, FERC canceled the developer’s preliminary permit in 1997 after the project failed to make progress, and the immediate threat faded. The episode became an important example of how local river communities could successfully push back against hydropower proposals.
A Continuing Symbol of Stewardship
Even though the race is not held every year, Canyon Creek remains an iconic place in Northwest whitewater — and the race, when it happens, carries a legacy beyond sport. It reflects a broader ethic common in whitewater communities: that rivers worth paddling are also worth defending.
Canyon Creek’s story is often remembered as a case where recreation, advocacy, and local volunteer action came together to protect a free-flowing creek from development.
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