The Kaweah River Page

http://www.kaweahriver.org

The Kaweah River is located in the foothills of the southern Sierra Nevada Range of California along Highway 198 at the southern entrance to Sequoia National Park. The river passes through the small town of Three Rivers and ends up in Lake Kaweah (Terminus Reservoir). It's one of the shortest drainages in the US from its headwaters at 12000 feet to Lake Kaweah. The Kaweah River, like its neighbors the Kings, Tule and Kern, never sees the Pacific Ocean. Instead, it splits into many channels upon entering the San Joaquin Valley below Lake Kaweah and is mostly consumed by irrigation. What's left, if any, ends up in Tulare Lake.

Current Flow Information

Post-A-Gauge Also available as http://postagauge.kaweahriver.org User posted gauge data for the North Fork, South Fork, Dinely Br., Park Boundary, and New for 2009 Hospital Rock

Kaweah 4 day Flow Graph or Kaweah 1 Month Flow Graph from dreamflows.com

The Kaweah Rivergauge at Pumpkin Hollow Also available as http://rivergauge.kaweahriver.org is not currently reporting. I have been too lazy to put in back in the river this season.

COE's 10day flow graph (Large file: 538KB)

Current Flow at Three Rivers from COE (gauge above Lower Slicky) Chart , or Table , or Graph

HOURLY Lake Inflow Chart , or Graph from Calif Snow Surveys Better Graph with 6 hour averaging function built in

DAILY Lake Inflow Chart or Graph from Calif Snow Surveys

Graphs of the latest and last 30 days River Conditions

Current Weather Information

Local Weatherstation CW4177 on MesoWest

Local Weatherstation CW4177 on CWOP

Redirect to Local Pumpkin Hollow Weatherstation Page

Latest Hanford, Ca. Doppler Radar Base Image or Composite Image from NOAA

Latest Hanford, Ca. Doppler Radar One Hour Base Loop or One Hour Composite Loop

Local Weather Forecast for Three Rivers, CA from the National Weather Service in Hanford

Hazardous Weather Outlook from the National Weather Service in Hanford

Special Weather Statement from the National Weather Service in Hanford

Winter Weather Advisory from the National Weather Service in Hanford

Severe Thunderstorm Warning from the National Weather Service in Hanford

Other Nearby Weatherstations on MesoWest

Station KAWC1 Lake kaweah - 540 ft

Station D0117 Three Rivers Museum - 856 ft

Station TSHC1 Ash Mtn. Park Headquarters - 1730 ft.

Station CQ161 Gaint Forest - 6234 ft.

Station MBMC1 Marble Fork Kaweah - 7842 ft.

Station CSWC1 Case Mountain - 6450 ft.

Station WVTC1 East Fork Kaweah near Redwood Creek - 5240 ft.

Message of the Day

Message of the Day has been added on Oct 25, 2005 to allow the webmaster to post this message remotely from any computer with internet access. The message is displayed as a GIF image in keeping with the fact that the KRP is a static web page, i.e. it is not generated on the fly. The message image is updated every 15 minutes.

The Kaweah River Page on Twitter

Follow us on Twitter as kaweahriver
Currently posting automatic daily twitter updates each morning with the 3AM COE flow at Three Rivers, lake level, and lake level below spillway. Other noteworthy tweets from time to time.

Boater and Kaweah News

Updated Wednesday. 07-28-2010

07-24-10 This weekend marks the end of the 2010 Kaweah Season. Low flow runs are possible on Hospital Rock and the East Fork but the lower runs are done for the year.

07-23-10 I took a bunch of pictures this year of commericial rafts trips at Gateway, The Chute, and Osterizer. If you were a KWA trip or other rafting company trip running from the uppermost Gateway putin at the bridge on 6-13, 6-18, 6-19, 6-26, 6-29, 7-05, 7-12, 7-16, or 7-17 then you can look this fall on the Kaweah Pictures Page and see your photos. It is too much trouble to get all this stuff posted so it is delayed as a early winter spare time project. Don't email asking for early release of the photos, I'll post it here when the photos are online. Also got kayaking photos at The Chute and/or Extended Boundary on 7-9, 7-10, 7-11, and 7-14. Those photos will get posted this fall too.

07-18-10 We got more beta on the first descents earlier this season of the Upper Upper North Fork from 4 miles above the walk in run. Cody Howard, Kevin Smith, and Gino Hacker ran it at 1.4 feet on the North Fork gauge and later returned to run it at 1.0 feet with Cody, Kevin, and one Mike. They hoped that some of the biggest stuff would be more runable with less water only to find the opposite to be true. Cody called the Upper Upper North Fork to be "possibly the best steepest runable section of whitewater anywhere" Look for more action on this section in the future now that there is first hand data. Access is on forest service roads near Badger and some brush whacking through chamise to get to the river. There should be some more coming documentation of this run in the blogs.

07-18-10 A green Dagger Nomad was found pinned on the Ash Mountain section on July 17th. It was pretty trashed and worn thin as a result of a long time in the river but the laws of river salvage prevailed and all usable hardware was stripped and salvaged for spare parts. The hulk was left to tan in the sun somewhere. I suspect that there are more boats and paddles lost on Hopital Rock than we might think. The North Fork and South Fork claim more than their fair share of equipment.

07-17-10 A successful first descent of the Upper-Upper East Fork from four miles above Horse Creek (six miles above the Lookout Point Trail was completed Friday, July 15-16, by the team of Cody Howard, Nathan Hunkapillar, Culley Thomas, Macy Burnham, and Chris Tulley. They finished the run with a descent all the way down the Upper East Fork to the takeout at the Oak Grove Bridge. Soon after their just in time takout they watched the river rise a foot in no time as a result of the thunder storm activity in the mountain during the day. A side trip a quarter mile up Horse Creek found some big drops including a 40 footer that Cody ran. This leaves only the 1 mile section at 400 foot per mile above their run of last week as yet unrun water. The two miles and 1000 feet above this from the Atwell Mill trail was run in 2008 by some of the same crew.

07-17-10 Strange thunder weather activity in the mountains the last three days ended with a mini flash flood Friday night that doubled the river flow in 4 hours. The Park Boundary jumped from 5.00 feet to 6.2 feet in three hours between 5PM and 8PM. The river started turning muddy at 9PM and by Saturday morning the flow had dropped but the Middle Fork was running brown/green and the East Fork was chocolate brown.

07-13-10 Your webmaster announced his retirement from kayaking as he has known it for the past 27 years, and 25 years on the Kaweah. From now on the upper runs including Gateway are off limits and kayaking will be only casual Class 3 social boating at easy flows. I will continue to dilegently maintain the Kaweah River Page to the best of my ability and stay close to the the sport and the Kaweah, and close to all you guys and gals who I have become friends with over the years on the Kaweah.

07-11-10 The Extended Boundary saw many runs in the last three days. Your webmaster entertained guests Masa San and Kenya San from Sacramento. Kenya San at thirteen years old demonstartated himself as a solid Class 4+ boater with 4 runs on the Extended Boundary at levels of 5.20 feet to 5.45 feet on the Boundary gauge. He can be seen coming through the Chute at the completion of his Extended Boundary run on Saturday as Picture fo The Day. Not only is Kenya the youngest ever to run the difficult Extended Boundary but his run at 5.45 feet is a very stout level at the high end of the normally runnable range. Kenya sports a bulletproof hand roll on both sides that he used when a hole depaddled him and he hand rolled up out of the hole, ran the next drop hand paddling, and reteived his paddle no problem. Impressive! Watch for this youngster up on Hospital Rock someday as soon as Dad gives him the OK. There was also some carnage up there by a boater going by K.P. (name withheld to protect the innocent) with nasty swims of Slalom on the Extended Boundary and No. 1 from the top on the Boundary, calling it a day at the SCE Bridge.

07-02-10 There is a hazard dangling over the diversion dam at the Park Boundary. It is the Edison Company log boom that guards the intake facility for the flume serving Kaweah Plant No. 2. It has been there ever since the peak flows washed it out and does not seem to be going away anytime soon. It is being held in place by the chain still attached to one end of the boom and the other end of the chain attached to the top of the dam. As the boundary drops to runable levels in the next several weeks be aware of this hazard. The log boom is only a few feet right of the line that is normally taken to run the dam.

06-25-10 THERE WAS A FATALITY ON THE KAWEAH ON MONDAY, JUNE 21st. The victim was a 21 year old man from Florida on a commerical raft trip with All Outdoors. The flow was 1.7 feet on the Dinely Bridge gauge and the water temperature was 50 degrees. The account that was heard goes something like this. I will try to be as general as possible as I was not there first hand and this is a third hand account. The second of two rafts flipped at the bottom of Powerhouse. The resulting swimmers were separated with most on the left side in the moderate rapid below Powerhouse and the victim was swimming the right side. The left side is the more serious water with substantial bedrock and stronger hydraulics and with far fewer opportunies to get out. While rescue of the swimmers was being facilitated by the upright raft on river left, the victim was in a position where self rescue was the only option. Evidently he did not make it to the right bank before being swept down the right channel at Cyanotic. The further right one can get in the 1/4 mile rapid between Powerhouse and Cyanotic the less problematic is a normal swim as the current lessens to the far right. A far right side swim is in Class 2/2+ water with a couple of short class 3's until one enters Cyanotic where the rapid suddenly turns Class 4 with powerful hydraulics and one very large right channel wide pourover hole. Another 150 yards of very big whitewater follows the large hole until the river turns Class 2+ again. The cause of death listed by the coronor was blunt force trauma.

06-16-10 The final runoff forecast for the 2010 season was released today. the five day period centered on July 3rd calls for a 50% probability of 1632 cfs average inflow into the lake. The equates to about 1500 cfs at Three Rivers on the COE gauge. That also says Hospital Rock and the East Fork will still be cranking over the July 4th holiday.

06-15-10 The webcam at The Chute went back online at 17:30 today, Tuesday..

06-09-10 The private access road used to scout the dangerous low bridge on the South Fork Shatner Ranch run has been blocked by a new Berlin Wall iron gate. I'm not sure when this was installed but it looks pretty new.

06-09-10 The Runoff Forecast released today reported the peak flow for the season at 11,000 acre-feet inflow to the lake on June 6th. This equates to a 24 hour average inflow of 5610 cfs. The actual peak inflow exceeded the 50% probability estimate by 15%.

05-29-10 We hear from the campground volunteer at Buckeye Flat that a group of kayakers from Idaho ran Chucks Drop on Friday, May 28th. with 1100 cfs at Three Rivers.

05-28-10 The monumental task of creating and posting all the missing pictures from the 2008 and 2009 seasons is complete. The missing pictures for earlier years have also been posted. You can find the new pictures by following the Pictures Page link. Some good stuff too from up on Hospital Rock, and a lot of Kaweah Whitewater Adventures rafting photos. The project took 3 days and 211MB of photos have been added to the archive, more than anyone in his/her right mind would want to look at.

05-23-10 The Kaweah-Cam has been programmed to look for rafts in the image. Here you will find the latest Raft Watch Image

05-04-10 The May 1st snowpack report is showing the Kaweah drainage is 191% of average. This is a significant increase over April 1st and the largest May 1st snowpack since the 1998 El Nino year when the May 1st snowpack was 248% of average. You can review all the previous Kaweah snowpack numbers from 1950 through 2010 at the Kaweah Snowpack Comparison Page

05-03-10 The Kaweah River Page reached 150,000 hits at 12:04PM Monday. The lucky visitor is from the IP address at 65.254.33.xxx located somewhere near Atlanta, GA. The visitor who had the 149,999th hit at 11:41AM at IP 142.58.115.xxx in the San Francisco, CA area tried in vain to get the 150,000th hit by reloading the page 6 times but was denied the victory because the hit counter ignores multiple consecutive hits from the same source. The screenshot of the hitcounter was recorded for posterity as it happened.

04-27-10 The History of The Kaweah River Page was updated for the first time since being published 5 years ago. You can find the link at the bottom of this page.

04-27-10 Boater News prior to March 2010 has been moved to the News Archive. There is a bunch of good stuff in the archive going all the way back to 2000. The News Archive represents a pretty good historical timeline of the Kaweah for a decade.

04-21-10 The weekly runoff forecast was released by CNRFC today, April 21. The 50% probability forecast for the peak one day average inflow to the lake has been increased to be 4335 cfs on May 27th.

04-21-10 The recent rain storm has dumped over 2 inches of rain at the lower elevations and 20 inches of snow at Farewell Gap at 9500 feet.

04-14-10 The Kaweah River Page endorses BRIAN ROUCH FOR TULARE COUNTY SUPERVISOR, 4th DISTRICT. Yes, it's Brian Rouch, the same Brian and the first and only kayaker to be featured in the banner photo at the top of this web page. Brian is not only one of the original local Kaweah River kayakers but his family has a long history in the local San Joaquin Valley agricultural community. Read about Brian's election campaign at his website. http://www.brianrouch.com . The 4th District includes northern Tulare County but does not include Three Rivers which is part of the 1st District. The Banner Ad at the top of this page is a first for this page. The Ad will remain up until the election on June 8th. Brian will be pretty busy during the election campaign but we hope to see him on the river again after the election. This July will mark the 10 year anniversary for Brian as the "banner boater" at the top of this page.

04-12-10 The April 1st snowpack report shows the Kaweah drainage at 138% of Average. The lower elevation snowpack is even higher with 195% of average at 6400 feet. Two winter storms since the snow survey was taken are pushing April to be a better than normal snowpack accumulator. The rains and lack of hot weather are keeping Kaweah country nice and green. April 1st Snowpack of the neigboring drainages: Kings River 107%, Tule River 181%, Kern River 123%. The California Snow Water Content Page at CDEC is a good page to watch to follow the snowpack accumulation by region. The latest graph for the southern section shows the affect of the storms since April 1st.

03-24-10 The link directly below has been corrected so you will get the correct "Snowpack Comparison" page.

03-15-10 The Snowpack Comparison page is updated with the 2010 snowpack data clearly showing we are on track for a runoff similar to 2005 and 2006.

03-14-10 The March 1st Kaweah snowpack is in. It's 143% of average with 4 of 5 stations reported. Still on track for a big water runoff. Very high snowpack at the lower elevations means a stellar North Fork season. The Tule River snowpack is a whopping 339% of average and the Kern River has 130% of average with 13 of 14 stations reported. To the north the Kings River is reporting only 99% of average.

Previously posted news is in the News Archive

The Kaweah River Webcams: "Kaweah-Cam", Ash Peaks, Moro Rock

The current hours of operation for all webcams are 5:30AM through 8:30PM Pacific Time.

All webcams displayed on one page (now with real time Java clock thanks to timeanddate.com)

Key to the Kaweah-Cam River Level Markings for flood watch conditions

Key to the Kaweah-Cam Rock Formations 22 formations as they were on Mar. 24, 2009 (some will become permanently missing as the water rises)

More about the Kaweah-Cam including the image archive, image correlation to flow, flood images, and more. Also available as http://kaweahcam.kaweahriver.org

The other "Kaweah Kam" is hosted by The Kaweah Commonwealth newspaper in Three Rivers

The Sequoia Park Webcam looks SW into the Kaweah River Drainage from the ridge at Giant Forest

The Latest Mineral King Webcam Image or the Mineral King Webcam home page

The Silver City Webcam

Middle Fork Upstream View and Downstream View at Portage No. 11 on the Park Boundary section from the Buckeye Tree Lodge.

The Kaweah River Picture of the Day

Kaweah River Picture of the Day Macy Burnham drops in on one of the big drops on the Upper East Fork above Oak Grove Bridge. (link launches in new browser window) Turn off your popup blocker if this link fails to work!

Picture of the Day Archive for 2000 through present

The Kaweah River Picture Page

The Kaweah River Picture Page Also available as http://pictures.kaweahriver.org All the pictures from the 2000 through 2006 seasons. The Picture Page is served by a separate server with always on connection, very fast upload speed of 5Mb/sec, and infinite file space so all the current and past photos are always available. If you saw me taking your picture somewhere on the river it is likely to be found here.

The Kaweah Rivergauge Project

Realtime Web Based Rivergauge Project Page This was a 2 year home project that became operational in May 2003.

The Kaweah Rivergauge Page Also available as http://rivergauge.kaweahriver.org has the level and water temperature data and plots reported from the rivergauge. The riverguage will be in real-time operation again in May of 2010.

More Weather Information

Temperature, Rainfall and Snowpack Graphs for current conditions in Sequoia National Park. This is one of the webmaster's favorite links. (plot images in this page are broken ever since DWR reconfigured it's plotting methods and broke a good thing, the ability to embed DWR plots in a webpage. DWR broke a really good thing and I can't seem to be able to DWR to fix it.)

Weather Forecasts from: The Weather Channel-Three Rivers, The Weather Channel-Visalia, The Weather Channel-Sequoia Park, USA Today, Fresno KSEE Channel 24,, Fresno Intellicast Weather

Spring Runoff Information

This is the final forecast for the 2010 snowmelt.
Graph updated weekly on Wednesdays during the runoff season. All readings in 1000 acre-ft. To convert 5 day acre-ft reading to average CFS multiply readings in the graph by 102.

More spring runoff infomation is moved Here.

Flow Graphs and Gauge Data

Flow, Gauge and Flow history is moved Here

Kaweah River Descriptions by Section

The Headwaters of the Kaweah (Expedition Boating) from Cliff Creek to Hospital Rock has been run in the spring of 2004

The Buckeye Flat Section (Class 5+) from above Buckeye Flat Campground to Hospital Rock adds a mile of difficult water to the Hospital Rock Run

Hospital Rock Section (Class 5+) Hospital Rock to Marble Fork Confluence

The Marble Fork (Class 5+) from 2 miles above the confluence with the Middle Fork has been reported to have been run

Ash Mountain Section (Class 5+) Marble Fork Confluence to Park Boundary

Extended Park Boundary Run (Class 4+/5) 200 ft/mi The Gorge below Ash Mountain Park Headquarters to the Park Boundary

Park Boundary Run (Class 4+) Park Boundary to East Fork Confluence

Gateway Run (Class 4) East Fork Confluence to Dinely Bridge

Dinely Run (Class 3) Dinely Bridge to Town of Three Rivers

Lake Run (Class 2+)(4) Three Rivers to the Lake

Below the Dam (Class 2+) Dry Creek Road to Woodlake Airport

Dry Creek above the confluence with the Kaweah is unrun

The St. Johns River below McKays Point (Class 2+) and across the Valley has been run

The Kaweah River (Irrigation Canal Boating) below McKays Point is yet unrun

Lower Lower North Fork (Class 3+T/4) from Bailey Bridge to Middle Fork Confluence

Lower North Fork (Class 3+T/4) from Paradise to Bailey Bridge

North Fork (Class4+/5) from Yucca Creek to Paradise Beach

Yucca Creek (Expedition Boating) has been run from 2 miles above the confluence with the North Fork

Upper North Fork (Class 5) from 5 miles above Yucca Creek

The Headwaters of the North Fork (Expedition Boating) beyond 5 miles above Yucca Creek is yet unrun

South Fork (Class 3T/5+) from Park Boundary to Middle Fork

East Fork (Class 5+/6) from Oak Grove Bridge to Middle Fork

Upper East Fork From Lookout Point Trail to Oak Grove Bridge

Upper Upper East Fork (Expedition Boating) From Atwell-Hockett trail crossing to Lookout Point trail is alleged to have been run

The headwaters of the East Fork from Mineral King Valley to the Atwell-Hockett trail crossing is unrun and is likely unrunnable

Pictures

The Kaweah River Picture Page All the pictures from the 2000 through 2006 seasons

Picture of the Day Archive for the 2000 through 2006 boating seasons.

1998 Kaweah River Boating Vacation Pictures

Preston Holmes runnning Cherry Falls at 2.7 ft

Blain Harmon running Cherry Falls at 1.9 ft

Sunset over Case Mtn. or Sunset to the West

The Girls Cliff Jumping into the Gorge below Ash Mountain.

The Gardenfork of the Kaweah ;)

Kaweah Post Office up North Fork Drive

Very Serious "KAWEAH" Boater!

Gas Station at Pumpkin Hollow in the old days

Commercial raft having a normal day at Powerhouse pre 2002 Janet Reno Rock location and very pre the current Al Gored Rock

Commercial Rafting Companies on the Kaweah

Copy of the Flyer sent to local residents concerning commercial operation in 2000 (pdf 150KB)

Kaweah White Water Adventures Locally owned, operated, and Recommended by the Kaweah River Page! KWA offers the highest commercial put in on the river allowing guests to experience 4 more of the best class 4 rapids including Gateway, The Chute, Headwall, and Osterizer. Also, KWA is the least expensive commercial trip available. Phone 1-800-229-8658 (Toll free) or 559-561-1000 (Local in Three Rivers, Ca.)

Whitewater Voyages

All-Outdoors

Whitewater Connection

Adventure Connection

Wilderness Adventures

American River Recreation

Tributary WhitewaterTours

Beyond Limits Adventures Not licensed on the Kaweah in 2004

ABLE Adventure Tours. Not licensed on the Kaweah in 2004

River Access Problems

The Kaweah is difficut to access because all the land adjoining the river is privately owned. The traditional put-in at the river left upstream side of Pumpkin Hollow Bridge at the East Fork confulence was fenced off by the land owner in the spring of 1994 in cooperation with Cal Trans, the California State Highway Dept. The only reasonable access point for private boaters is 0.6 miles downstream of Pumpkin Hollow Bridge at the retaining wall where the highway comes immediately adjacent to the river. There is some parking downstream along the road. Dinely Bridge, has not been contested as an access point. The land on the right bank upstream of the bridge is owned by a public water district. Parking in Three Rivers is available at the School on the south side of Hwy 198 across from the Chevron Service Station. Click here for more on the Pumpkin Hollow Bridge Access situation or Click here for comprehesive general information on the politics of the ongoing Kaweah River Access issue.

Letter from Mr. William Sanders, Tulare County Supervisor in regards to future Kaweah River access

Disclaimer: River running is inherently dangerous. Know and understand the AWA Safety Code before you attempt any whitewater activities. The author makes no warranties as to the accuracy of the information contained herein. ....Bla, bla, bla....

Find out more About the Author
or The History of the Kaweah River Page
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or Our Home on the Kaweah River

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Visits since April 1st, 1999 Counter courtesy of digits.com

The Kaweah River Page, http://c2.com/kaweah/Copyright © 1996 through 2010 by Bill Pooley. All rights reserved. The Kaweah River Page is a non profit web site. The links to commercial operations have been freely donated as well as political endorsements. This web page is Y2K compliant and tediously edited by hand. It contains no browser corrupting, site slowing Java or Java script, cookies, annoying popup windows and only a rare occational banner ad. The main page is designed to work with a dialup connection. Only a simple html editor, Araneae, is used to highlight the html syntax during editing. Spelling and errors in grammar are par for the course, I'm an engineer for Heaven sakes, not an English teacher. This website is best viewed on a monitor with at least 768x1024 display size and 16 Million colors.

Last modified: 07.28.2010