Sara and I were looking for something shorter and fun to round out the weekend and I was feeling surprisingly sore from the previous day's adventure so we decided to check out the lower gorge stretch of the East Fork of the Kaweah River. Rick's parents kindly offered to relocate our car to the exit in Three Rivers so we were all go. This would be a few hour trip with no harnesses or ropes needed. I instantly appreciated the light pack and nine minute walk down the hillside to the river. A little scrambling and walking brought us to a left turn where the river began its lower gorge. Near here we found a neat waterfall you could climb up behind quite a ways.
Gorge really is the best way to describe this canyon- it's wide with great bedrock patios, large pools, occasionally long swimming pools, and typically short waterfalls well situated to be slides. The flow was exceptionally low, but we had a great time seeking out the best jumps and slides in this natural waterpark. Although not necessary, the couple longer swims and higher jumps made me appreciate the lifejackets we brought.
At the end of the longest swim
Too shallow to jump unfortunately
One of the more scenic stretches of canyon
We took our time, lapping some of the better features. The canyon was more beautiful than I expected. There were a few pockets on the side with trees that I could see being excellent camping spots.
One of the slides towards the end (above and below) was probably my favorite. It had a nice long slabby slide to gain speed, which then rolled over steeply to drop you into the pool below. I couldn't resist three laps.
An interesting pothole
Soon the bedrock began to be overtaken by boulders, signifying the main end of the gorge and a stretch of boulder scrambling before Three Rivers. This stretch was still pleasant and still occasionally had some small jumps and nice pools to refresh ourselves. By this point in the early afternoon the water was considerably warmer than when we set out. The last adventure was trying to find our way back onto the road- probably the hardest part of the trip!
Sara and I left Riverside a little after 6pm which put us into the campsite at Atwell Mill a little before midnight- not ideal but at least the windy road up to Mineral King was free of cars. Rick had recruited an enterprising team of eight canyoners keen to tackle what appeared to be a sizable first descent. Of course the flow would be exceptionally lower than average but the long approach (~6mi), long canyon (3mi), and somewhat long exit (1mi/100ft vertical) would add up to a long day regardless of the possible obstacles we might encounter. For such a trip I would usually prefer a team of about four but Rick thought we could make good enough progress with eight. On the plus side I managed to not have to carry a rope so no complaints there!
We set off a little after 6am (leaving me with little sleep) and made decent time up the trail. The off-trail jaunt down the hill had more vegetation and downed logs than expected but was a quick detour to Horse Creek. We were happy to see there was water in the creek given the extreme drought and an abundance of water-polished bedrock which we held to be a good sign of what we would find below. I dipped my hand into the icy cold water and began suiting up.
The canyon started out slow. Lots of scrambling, a few short slides, a couple brain freezing jumps, and some downclimbs. The canyon cuts through a giant sequoia grove, as far as I know making it completely unique. I was impressed by some of the sizes of the logs in the canyon. One big sequoia log could create an impressive debris dam. Shortly we came to one of the canyon many good features, a long low angle slide. I took at least a half dozen laps on this great slide.
Slowly bedrock became more abundant and the pools deeper. Short jumps and swims were very common. At one point Rick was in the lead and looked back with a satisfying grin on his face. Sure enough he had just found an excellent slide, a smooth steep chute which ended in an 8ft drop into a deep pool. Excellent!
Tall jumps became more common and the canyon even had a couple gorge-like narrows that were quite pretty. Some of the pools ended at boulder piles which i could imagine could be challenging sieves in the right conditions.
We had a quick lunch at the Cahoon Creek confluence, with only two rappels up to this point. We were only about a third of the way through the canyon with the last third expected to be the most canyon-like. I was a little worried about getting out before dark, but we played on, doing our best to stay efficient.
Probably the biggest jump option
We never quite moved as a well-oiled team and we continually had a few lagging behind and a few bursting ahead, but it was working well enough. Towards the end the canyon certainly got better with more rapid fire rappels into deep pools and some waterfalls that ended in great slides. The pictures can speak to it better than I can. It was a long canyon with some excellent features. It would be a great and fun challenge at higher flows.
The only anchor we had to build, otherwise there were plenty of trees
The canyon went on and on...
When we turned the last corner and could see the end of the canyon a third of a mile ahead I scrambled on ahead to see if we had passed the last obstacles. Fortunately we had finally reached the Kaweah. We followed it downstream for a further third of a mile and then exited the creek. I was overjoyed to get my wetsuit off after a long day of wearing it. The exit route back up the hill to the road was highly experimental and we made a series of poor, bush-bashing choices before we finally reached a steep but excellent fisherman's trail which took us straight up the hill.
Finally at the Kaweah!
Last bit of fun in the Kaweah
We rolled into camp just at sunset, perfect timing for a solid day and an excellent first descent. Sara had a great day hiking up in Mineral King and kindly made me dinner as I was in a post-first descent stupor. Thanks to Rick and the rest of the group for an excellent first descent- best I have had in a while. Great stuff, I'm thirsty for more!
