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 MesoWest Weatherstations

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.

Boater and Kaweah News

Updated Mon. 06-29-09

06-29-09 There is another great writeup out there regarding an East Fork run on June 9th with the group of Eric and Rebecca Giddens, Jason, Trevor and Geno at a Park Boundary flow of 4.90 ft. (840 cfs peak the night before at Thrre Rivers) This link to Eric Giddens' Writeup on the East Forkhas alot of great photos including a sequence of Trevor running Dead Man's Alley in various states of instability. Good reading! Appologies that I don't have all the last names at this time. The blog goes on to document the following day on Hospital Rock.

06-27-09 Ben Stookesberry and Darin McQuoid made the third known decent of the Upper Middle Fork from Panther Creek to Buckeye Flat Campground in a two day expedition with only one day on the river June 14-15, 2009. The 3 mile run from Panther Creek (River Mile 64.1) to Chucks Drop (River Mile 61.1) drops 1120 feet (370 ft/mile average) from the put in elevation of 3840 feet to the take out at the trail crossing above Chucks Drop at elevation 2720 feet. They had a flow range at the Three Rivers COE gauge of 540 to 740 cfs. You can check out Darin's Upper Middle Fork Kaweah Report June 14-15, 2009 for a great writeup.
- The team of Cody Howard, Erik Boomer, Dan Laham, and Scott Baker made the second know descent of this section April 15-17 of this year with 525 to 680 cfs recorded on the Three Rivers gauge. With April flow contributions from the North Fork the real flow at Three Rivers would have been less by about 100 cfs of this number. They reported the flow to be about as much as one would want for this section. Scott abandoned the run above the mandatory Rusty's Rampage after an unsuccessful portage, abandoning his boat and hiking out reaching the takeout 24 hours later. The writeup on Cody, Erik, Dan, and Scott's Upper Middle Fork Kaweah April 15-17, 2009 is well worth reading.
- Both descents of the Upper Middle Fork this year were shorter by some 5 miles or more than the epic first descent May 26-31, 2004 by Scott Lindgren, Shannon Carrol, Matze Brustiman, Steve Fisher, Rusty Sage, Taylor Robertson, and Jason Hale at 475 to 840 cfs on the Three Rivers gauge. This first descent was a 6 day affair that originated on Cliff Creek somewhere above it's Middle Fork confluence (confluence is river mile 68.3 at elevation 4840 feet). The first descent allegedly claimed 3 broken paddles at Rusty's Rampage near the end of the Panther Creek gorge. The first descent is part of the Scott Lindgren Production "Burning Time 2" available on DVD from Scott Lindgren Productions

06-09-09 Chris Fairchild is again Picture of the Day with an outcome hard to believe if it wasn't caught by the camera. Yes, sports fans, this is Chris 1/2 second later from his move on the lip of Little Niagara seen in yesterday's Picture of the Day.

06-07-09 Some boaters will do anything to be immortalized as Picture of the Day. With competition stiff for today's spot, and so many great runner-up photos, Chris Fairchild took the challenge to a new level with a patented move on the lip of Little Niagara that is not likely repeatable by anyone but the patent holder himself. Possibly the most extreme kayaking yet seen in the nine years of The Picture of the Day.

05-31-09 Josh Bruckner made his Picture of the Day debut today up on Hospital Rock. There were several other great runs on the V-slide today but only room for one Picture of the Day. The level was a fairly meaty 5.0 2PM reading on the Hospital Rock gauge. Sorry KWA rafters, I had some good shots of you guys too but Josh on the V-Slide was over the top.

05-30-09 Picture of the Day today was hard to chose. I had several good shots to choose from. In the end Tex Osterizing his KWA paddlers won in the tossup.

05-30-09 We just heard that yours truly is featured in a recent LVM video being interviewed on the history of the Kaweah. I haven't seen the DVD yet but I only hope I look as stupid as most of those that came before me doing LVM interviews. 8^)

05-29-09 Hospital Rock and The East Fork have dropped to runable flows for the coming weekend.

05-27-09 A new webcam at The Chute has been added bringing the webcam count to four. The webcam at The Chute is seasonal and subject to withdrawal if it looks like rain.

05-26-09 The Boater News for January through March 2009 has been moved to the News Archive.

05-25-09 The water temperature graph was added to the page today. Please ignore the bogus 55 degrees filler data prior to midday May 23rd.

05-23-09 The water temperature sensor was re-installed in the river and is now updating every 15 minutes in both Fahrenheit and Celcius in the "Current Weather Information" section of this page. As soon as we get 4 days worth of data the 4 day water temperature graph will be posted too.

05-20-09 Today's DWR runoff forecast predicts the 50% probable flow at 1734 cfs average inflow to the lake for the next 5 days steadily diminishing to 1000 cfs by the weekend of June 6th.

05-18-09 The Kaweah has peaked for the 2009 runoff season at 2665 cfs early this morning at midnight. Lower flows from here on out.

05-15-09 The Kaweah-Cam captured one Kaweah Whitewater Adventures boat passing by the webcam Friday morning with a load of commercial rafting customers. Kaweah-Cam 2009-05-15 11:05:06 The Kaweah-Cam is programmed to capture images every 20 seconds between 10:45 and 11:15 every morning in the hopes of catching a passing KWA raft. Images can only be captured every 20 seconds with upload to the internet invoked so it is likely that some boats will go undetected when the river is moving fast like it is now at levels above 1.5 ft on the Dinely Gauge.

05-13-09 Today's DWR runoff forecast predicts the 50% probable flow at 2346 cfs average inflow to the lake by the middle of next week. Peak flow prediction moves out 4 days to May 18th with the peak one day inflow to Lake Kaweah at 2805 cfs.

05-09-09 The Kaweah-Cam captured Two Kaweah Whitewater Adventures boats passing by the webcam Saturday morning with a load of commercial rafting customers. Kaweah-Cam 2009-05-09 10:55:36 and Kaweah-Cam 2009-05-09 10:56:43

05-07-09 The Kaweah River Page has joined Twitter. Find us at http://twitter.com/kaweahriver on the Twitter Page. Those of you reading the Kaweah River Page directly will likely not need Twitter as anything posted to twitter will also appear here in the "Message Of The Day" and/or "Boater and Kaweah News". Twitter does provide us an an additional avenue for distributing Kaweah River updates to those on mobile devices.

05-06-09 Today's runoff forecast indicates a fairly steady runoff at 1734 cfs average inflow to the lake for the next 2 weeks with higher upside potential. Peak flow prediction remains at 2550 cfs average inflow to the lake on May 14th, the peak flow occurring 4 days sooner than last weeks forecast.

05-05-09 The May 1st snowpack report is done. The Kaweah basin has 79% of normal snowpack for May 1st. Last year it was 71% on May 1st. With similar weather to 2008 the boating season should go through the 4th of July weekend for kayaking but end the week before for rafting. The Kaweah basin reports much higher May 1st snowpack than the Kings, Tule, and Kern basins so there is always a chance the 79% number could be a bit high. Hard to imagine one lttle drainage could have so much more snow than everything else on all sides.

05-01-09 The May 1st snowpack report is still coming in... With 2 of 5 stations reported the Kaweah basin is reported at 98% of May 1st average. However, don't count your chickens before they are hatched! The adjacent Kings (Apr/May 83%/64%), Tule (Apr/May 76%/31%), and Kern (Apr/May 73%/34%) river basins are all showing a dramatic reduction in May 1st average snowpack vs. April 1st. in their May 1st partial reports. Compare the reports for April 1st 2009 and May 1st 2009 for yourself. I had made an earlier prediction for a reduced Kaweah snowpack at 45% of May 1st average. While the final Kaweah May 1st number may not be as low as 45%, it certainly will be less than the 98% partial report figure.

04-29-09 The weekly runoff report released today indicates near constant runoff for the next four five day periods averaging 1428 cfs average daily inflow into the lake.

04-28-09 Your KRP webmaster had a successful rotator cuff shoulder surgery on Monday. The surgeon says the repair will be very strong due to the exact nature of the tear. Now the somewhat rough recovery period begins. I'll be back on the river next season good as new.

04-28-09 The morning Kaweah-Kam image from the Kaweah Commonwealth shows an improved wider field of view and a cleaned lens. Thanks for the improvement John!

04-26-09 The Eugene Register-Guard (Oregon) published an article on April 24, 2009 featuring an interview with Macy Burnham concerning the death of his father, Jon Burnham, on the Kern River last week.

04-22-09 A new weekly runoff report was released this morning by DWR and it shows the effect of the recent unseasonably warm weather. Peak flow date remains predicted at 2550 cfs average inflow to the lake on May 18th. The new runoff graph is posted below.

04-21-09 It is with deepest sadness that we must report the death of Jon Burnham, 63, on the Kern River at Carson Falls last Friday April 17th. John is the father of Macy and Jake Burnham. John's son Macy is one of the well known paddlers frequently seen on the extreme sections of the Kaweah River where the East Fork is his prefered venue. While I never met John personally it is obvious he had a zest for life and was still out paddling the hard stuff. Our thoughts and prayers are with John's family. An article at canoekayak.com has more information about the tragedy.

04-20-09 It is reported that a group ran the Upper Middle Fork from 5 miles above Buckeye Flat near Cliff Creek. The hike-in event spanned Fri/Sat/Sun and it is reported to be a must do to for the extreme types. Only Cody Howard's name is known so far along with ~3 others. Updates will appear here as they are known.

04-19-09 The Kaweah-Cam captured two kayakers in the 1PM Kaweah-Cam Image as they passed the webcam. Yellow boat in front and red-orange boat behind. It's Jeff and Eric from Fresno. Very rare indeed to actually capture boaters in the webcam.

04-15-09 The first runoff forecast of 2009 was released today and the graph is posted below in the Spring Runoff section. The 2009 peak flow date is initially predicted for May 18, 2009 at 2550 cfs average inflow to Lake Kaweah. The 50% probability flow on May 2nd is 1480 cfs average daily inflow into Lake Kaweah. Inflow to the lake is the sum of all tributaries.

04-08-09 That group of 19 kayakers seen back on March 23rd was from The World Class Kayak Academy in Montana. They spent a few days in Three Rivers and up running the Hospital Rock section. You can read about their trip to Three Rivers on their WCKA Blog Page and in the Kaweah Commonwealth March 27 - April 2 edition Volume 18, No 13. where their visit was featured on the front page. The front page can also be downloaded as a PDF file here. Kaweah Commonwealth March 27 - April 2 edition (Front Page PDF) . Yours truly was out on the beach that day and caught them after coming through The Chute. I talked to one fellow and tried to get them to eddy out for 3 minutes where they would have been captured in a group shot in the next Kaweah-Cam but the leaders were already heading downstream into Headwall. Bummer, the Kaweah-Cam would have loved to have you guys documented in the Kaweah-Cam archive.

04-04-09 April 1st snowpack in neighboring basins is as follows: Kings 83%, Tule 76%, Kern 74%.

04-03-09 Hospital Rock below Zero to Sixty was 4.70 feet at 4PM Thursday, April 2.

04-02-09 The April 1st snowpack report is starting to come in. The Kaweah drainage is at a low 77% of normal snowpack for April 1. The dry March and early runoff has taken a big toll on the snowpack. This year is comparable to 2007, another low water year. At this rate Kaweah boating will go through the first or second week of June depending on above/below normal April precipitation. This means a good Class 5 year on the East Fork and Hospital Rock with the friendlier lower flows but a poor rafting year with low flows and a shortened season on the main Kaweah. It may be that the season highest flow on the North Fork will be Friday, April 3rd but still not up to the 1.40 ft level for the normal run from Yucca Flat to Paradise Beach.

Previously posted news is in the News Archive

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

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. 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 Amanda Marusich on the East Fork June 27th (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 2009

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 (128kb/sec) and infinite file space so all of this season's photos are available online all season and beyond. If you saw me taking your picture somewhere on the river it is likely to be found here. The Kaweah River Chat Page is also located here for real time Kaweah boater chat.

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 spring 2009.

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

May 27, 2009 report.
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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The Kaweah River Page, http://c2.com/kaweah/ Copyright © 1996 through 2009 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. 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 or banner ads. 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: 06.29.09