The Most Popular Whitewater In California

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Today, I’m rafting another river.

Unlike the tricky rivers earlier in this trip (see The best raft trip in the United States) I chose an easier one this time.

I want to relax.

I booked a trip on the South Fork of the American, the most popular raft trip in California.

The river contains only class II and III rapids, so it’s safe for people with no previous experience.

It’s also easily accessible, a mere hour and a half from San Francisco.

An astonishing twenty three companies have commercial permits for this river, and every one sells out their trips on summer weekends.

Battle for the Upper Stanislaus

Any rafter on the American River (all forks) needs to take a few minutes to honor the upper Stanislaus, the river I mentioned at the New Melones Reservoir yesterday.

Even though it’s gone, rafting on the American and many other California rivers would not exist without it.





Whitewater enthusiasts discovered the upper Stanislaus in the early 1960s.

It had a dream layout of nine miles of class II and III rapids, through an incredibly beautiful canyon of white limestone.

The trip quickly became the most popular in California.

Few river users gave any thought to the town of Melones many miles downstream, the site of a dam authorized during the Depression but never built.

The famers of the Central Valley certainly remembered that dam though, and they were agitating for the water it could provide.

The Army Corps of Engineers started construction in 1966.





River enthusiasts discovered they had a problem soon thereafter.

Someone calculated the size of the reservoir the dam would create.

It is huge (the fourth largest in California, in fact).

When full, it would completely inundate the upper Stanislaus.

These enthusiasts joined with the then new environmental movement to force the Army Corps of Engineers to shrink the reservoir enough to preserve the rapids.

It became the largest fight over a dam since Hetch Hechy (see The Golden State).





The battle lasted almost a decade.

At one point, Governor Jerry Brown tried to stop the dam by cancelling its operating permits.

The Army Corps sued to get them back.

The dam builders and farmers ultimately won, when an initiative petition to protect the river failed a statewide vote by 5%!i(MISSING)n 1974.

The New Melones Dam was finished in 1979, and the upper Stanislaus whitewater trip drowned soon afterward.





The surprise silver lining is what happened next.

The activists that fought against New Melones quickly realized there were other sites of authorized but never built dams in California.

They formed an organization, the Friends of the River, for the express purpose of cancelling them.

They became very good at this, ultimately causing every single one to be deauthorized.

New Melones is the last large dam built in California; an era that started with the damming of Hetch Hechy sixty years earlier was over.

One of those dams would have drowned a portion of all three forks of the American, including the part I’m about to raft.

That particular proposed dam is also the reason for the high bridge from yesterday; it was built when highway planners believed it would have a reservoir underneath it.





The fight over New Melones also had a huge impact on river recreation.

Many people found out about whitewater rafting from the publicity surrounding the debate.

They decided to see what the fuss was about for themselves.

The South Fork American, an easily accessible river, became a major beneficiary of this interest.

In many ways, rafting on the American River lives due to the death of the upper Stanislaus.





It’s worth noting that a thin silver lining exists even for the upper Stanislaus.

Since it is located at the upper end of the reservoir, a long enough drought should drop the water level enough to expose the rapids.

It’s happened once so far.

When it does, every private rafter races to experience the legendary lost raft trip.

The rapids were as good as people remember, although the scenery is not much to look at anymore.

South Fork American Rafting

The South Fork of the American is the perfect river for people who have never rafted, including those who are mildly afraid of rafting.

In addition to their relatively low difficulty level, the rapids on this river start with easy ones that build in complexity, allowing people to get comfortable.





I floated the South Fork American with All American Outdoors.

They are California’s oldest commercial outfitter, and have a very good reputation.

They have trips on a wide range of rivers in the state, from easy floats to the Cherry Creek section of the Tuolumne.

Their guides provide a great experience.





Barking Dog is typical of rapids early in the trip.

A flood dropped a gravel bar across the river, and the raft drops over it.

The bottom contains a wave train a few inches high, which soaks the boat.

First timers find it a little intimidating while veterans wonder what the fuss is about.

The name comes from a landowner who lived here in the late 1960s and had a loud dog.





Things pick up for the last third of the trip, the canyon section.

The surrounding hills rise to form a classic V shaped canyon, like the one I drove through yesterday.

The canyon contains seven class III rapids back to back.

Most of them are rock gardens of one form or another.

Thankfully, they don’t have as many rocks as the Klamath (see What Ancient Words Mean in a Modern Age).

The rapids have flat water in between to recover before tackling the next one in line.

Satan's Cesspool and Hospital Bar

The two toughest are Satan’s Cesspool and Hospital Bar.

Satan’s Cesspool contains a narrow slot between a big boulder pile on one side and a cliff on the other.

The slot leads directly to the cliff, so rafters must precisely turn at the bottom to avoid it.

The turn leads to a two inch waterfall into a hole.

Class IV rapids contain a half dozen of these situations in a row, but in a class III rapid it stands out.

We practiced the turn a few times to ensure people had the timing correct.

Our guide also warned “If it looks like we will hit the rock pile, we probably are”.

We got through the slot clean, at which point the guide sent the boat into the steepest part of the waterfall and hole for a huge soaking.





First timers may think that Hospital Bar Rapid refers to where they will end up if things go wrong, but it’s actually named for a hospital that was here in the gold mining days.

The rapid is created by a large pile of flood debris.

The upper portion is a rock garden, steeper than the ones before.

That leads to the bar itself, a six inch waterfall into a huge hole.

This last portion resembles Rattlesnake Rapid on the White Salmon (see One Pretty Raft Trip).

We got through the rocks clean, and then took the hole head on.

A huge wave crested over the boat, filling it to the brim.

As noted on the White Salmon, this maneuver is called “bathtubbing”.



(LATE UPDATE)

A beautiful video of rafting this river.

It contains two rapids not on my trip.

How NOT to raft Hospital Bar:

Oktoberfest

I had time after the raft trip, so I asked the guides for suggestions.

Two towns in the area have festivals this weekend.

Coloma has a folk festival while Placerville celebrates Oktoberfest.

I went to Placerville.

The town consists of a long strip of brick Victorian buildings, with a central square with a fire tower.

Placerville was founded as a supply center during the gold rush, since the immediate area had no gold.





The festival was pretty standard for these types of events, with vendors selling lots of German food and equal amounts of German beer.

The bands, disappointingly, played American rock and country music.

The festival had a number of contests, such as a German costume contest.

Most of the town’s shops were open, including the Bookery, a bookstore with an awesome selection on the Sierra Nevada.

I found a book on John Muir’s travels.

All in all, it was a nice change to the raft trip.





For dinner, I had what may be my last In N Out Burger of the trip.

Now that I’ve eaten many of them, my opinion has changed a bit.

California residents will probably accuse me of heresy, but the chain has dropped a notch on my favorites list.

The problem is that while what In N Out Burger serves is the best fast food on earth, that is ALL they serve.

Waffle House food is nearly as tasty, just as affordable, and comes in a wider variety.

If I was forced to eat at only one place on a long road trip, they are what I would choose.

In N Out is still a very close second, though.

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