I'm getting ready for my first snowmelt season around these parts and was hoping to get some feedback on these two rivers. At what cfs would you say the South Platte at C470 (right below Chatfield) and the Clear Creek Whitewater Park in Golden are good to go at?
I don't know anything about C470 South Platte (are you talking about the Union Chutes play park?). Golden, you can even go there now @ 40 cfs. It's essentially a free pool session with more brain freeze and less chlorine. Above 100 cfs you can get a couple of the holes to flip you if you try really hard and is good for beginners. Unfortunately it won't reach a good level at all this year unless we get a really heavy rain one day.
I did the S. Platte into town last year at very low flow....not worth it at all. The breakers were fun, but those were far and few between and we wasted alot of time on sandbars. Also, construction into town prevented us going all the way into the confluence so it was kind of a wasted trip. Will admit though that if the flow was decent, it could be a fun trip.
I'm a bit of a noob and a slow learner - but here's my 2 cents:
Golden play park is fun for noobs above about 100cfs - the main hole can be a little intimidating at ~200cfs+.
Ran C-470 to Union Chutes 2 seasons ago - I forgot the flow that day. The drops are kind of fun for noobs - but they are few and far between until you hit the chutes. The levels on this section of the south platte were never good enough for me to even consider paddling it last year - I imagine the same this year with the crappy snow pack.
the c 470 drop and liegh gulch can be run run as low as 175 -200...don't think i'd call it good ,but it definitely beats swimming pools,some small class 2 drops,eddylines and deep spots to roll in...at that level it would be more park and practice ...a run would kind of suck...it is cleaner out there..if you are a beginner in littleton ,liegh gulch ( off Santa Fe between the garden centers there is a park tucked away by the river ) is a no brainer ...Union could serve the same purpose i suppose but is usually especially nasty water quality that low..above 400 Union gets better...the town run is fun at high water 1500+ ...widely seperated II-III drops and play spots and the flat goes faster...
C470 can be done at 200+ cfs and the cutes at 150+ cfs, although not much fun at these levels. Good fun at 400+ cfs and getting intimidating for noobs at 1000+cfs.
Haven't seen this stretch really run since they built the new water supply lake just north of C470 a couple of years ago. Littleton has talked about river "improvements" to rework the channel for lower flows, so it sounds like medium to high flows on this stretch may be a thing of the past.
TheKenjammin, where you from and what's your experience level? There is a lot of great stuff out here besides the front range area. We can probably help with more stuff to run if we knew more about what you were looking for...
-David
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