Clearwater River - Play Run

Nestled away in the Wells Gray Provincial Park, the Clearwater River is an outstanding beautiful big volume river which is warm, deep and full of play waves.  This river is host to the Clearwater Festival in early August, with races, live music and epic raffle prizes it's one not to miss!

This River runs the entire summer, in Spring it can be colossally huge, and in September the gauges may say 'empty', but even at low water there is still fun to be had on this large river. (The Upper Upper Clearwater is great at 'Low' Water)

The take-out is very easy to find, just in town by the Bridge on Camp Two Road, you'll often find other boaters here in the summer.  Continue driving up the road, turn right onto the Clearwater River Forest Service Road. There is parking around the Kettle Put-in or further down at Hole-in-the-Wall rapid. At the Kettle there is rafting put-on just below the 3 fingers rapid at a spot called "The Mosh Pit" as the eddy is often quite violent, you are not permitted to drive down the ramp and it's very important you don't block the ramp as the rafting bus uses it.

Either put on just below the Class 5+ Kettle Rapid, or a little further down at 'Hole in the Wall' to avoid the more challenging 3-Fingers and Class 4 Wall rapid.

It's possible to run The Kettle at either low water or a very very hard line at higher water too.  At all water levels there is a shelf down-stream that gives out horrendous beat-downs, and at highwater there is a house-size hole to avoid. At low water this is still a big water class 5 move!

The first rapid is 3 fingers, all channels can be paddled at different water-levels, right side has a fun boof, left side has a chunkier wave-hole that at low water can give a surprise surf to playboats.  You'll then pass the rafters put-in at The Mosh Pit, which at high water is a big wavetrain.

Next you arrive at the Wall Island, the left side is generally easier, a huge wide wave guards the entrance, it's far friendlier than it looks, you run down passed a hole and then just downstream on the right is the 'German Basher' Wave which has a small hole behind it, and can be surfed.  The right side of the island is generally only run at lower water and has some shelfs that create some sticky holes.  You can inspect from the right, but it's tricky to see it all. Once the channels re-join you arrive at an eddy with the 'Hole in the Wall' rock.  This is a friendlier put-on for those who are more in the class 3 territory.

The river is then a series of long rapids with wide waves to drop on to and surf, lower water generally makes more waves with higher water having huge wave trains that feel quite continuous.

Shortly after Turkey Rock (big rock on left side of the river) there is a towering fast wave on the left which is always a challenge to catch.  Not long after a slight constriction into a pool signals you're at Pink Mountain.  Eddy out on the left and you can then spend hours dropping in to Pink Mountain Wave and then portaging back up to do it over and over again.  Pink is surfable around 3.0 to 3.85 on the bridge gauge, which is around 300-420cm/s on the online gauge, best around 400cm/s.

On the opposite side of the river at lower water there is the Little Pink hole, which is a shallow freestyle spot.

Many more wave-trains follow with some boiley points. It's possible to put on and run the last 1km or so for people who want a Class II+ experience.

Take out on the right just before the first bridge. Please don't use the rafting take-out at the next bridge.

There is a long section above the play-run which is no-longer accessible due to a landslide, hopefully one day the road will reopen.

Whilst you're in town I highly recommend you drive into Wells Gray Park and visit a few of the Waterfalls including the stunning Helmcken Falls, you will not be disappointed!