VIDEO: Helmet Cam Guide to Colorado's Crystal River Gorge

The Crystal River Gorge in central Colorado is one of the west's most famous and highest quality creek runs. This excellent helmet cam guide provides a detailed look at this gnarly class V creek.

CRYSTAL RIVER Avalance to BRB (A to B)

Put-in	Avalanche Creek
Takeout	BRB Campground
Length	6 miles
Difficulty	< 500 cfs	III-
	500-1,000 cfs	III
	> 1,000 cfs	III+

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Special facts: Continuous pushy whitewater with class III amplifications. The cold, fast water and sharp riverbed make for big consequences and there have been several accidents on this run.


The Avalanche to BRB section of the Crystal River is a tempting and pretty intermediate run. However, the clear water and beautiful setting belie a surprisingly serious run. As with almost all sections of the Crystal, it is wise to add a number grade when factoring consequences. I think it would be fair to call this a straightforward class III run but with class IV consequences due to its occasional log hazards, brutally cold water and continuous nature. The rock here, along with all sections of the lower Crystal, is also very sharp.

The rapids of this run are defined mostly by continuous wave trains with amplified corners. One rapid, called Marble (III+) is a slight amplification of the others and can easily be seen from the road while driving the shuttle. It is next to a large pullout.

CRYSTAL RIVER Bogan to Redstone

Put-in	Yule Quarry Bridge in Marble
Takeout	Bogan Flats Campground or Redstone
Length	5 miles
Difficulty	< 500 cfs	III
	500 to 1,200 cfs	III+
	> 1,200 cfs	IV

Special Beta: Colorado big water with roadside access!

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Bogan Canyon does not get very much attention these days for several reasons. For one, at the grade (III+/IV-) Bogan, like much of the Crystal, has stout consequences and therefore isn’t very intermediate friendly. It is not a good place to swim. Nasty log hazards often exist that can be hard to see in the turbulent, continuous whitewater that defines much of this river. By the time a boater is confident in their abilities enough to be able to deal with the objective hazards that this run presents, usually they will be off on Slaughterhouse or some other run of a higher quality.

Should you decide, whether for the scenery or just out of pure curiosity, that you want to tackle Bogan Canyon, expect a lot of indistinct class III whitewater with fast corners and occasional wood hazards. About

The Crystal River at the confluence of Hayes Creek

two-thirds of the way in you pass under a bridge (possible RIVER ACCESS) and enter Bogan Canyon proper. Here the road leaves the riverside for a while. If you are nervous about strainers, you may want to do a hike/pre-scout of this gorge before you put-in. Once in the canyon proper things move along fast and eddies become spaced, making scouting and/or portaging difficult in the event of a nasty log placement.

After a few swift, semi-challenging corners (III+/IV-) the river leaves this short canyon behind and starts to open up. The water remains fast, however, and the possibility for wood persists. You reach the Bogan Flats campground on the left. If you want to pay a day use fee you can park here or you can park up on the road and carry your stuff out at the end if you are a cheapskate. If you are looking for a developed place to camp, this is a good spot, though there is the usual BLM type fee.

CRYSTAL RIVER Meatgrinder

Put-in	Redstone
Takeout	Penny Hot Springs or Avalanche Creek
Length	2.2 miles (3.6 miles to Grizzly)
Difficulty	< 500 cfs	V-
	500-1,500 cfs	V+
	> 1,500 cfs	VI

Special Beta: Cold, manky, gnarl

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Meatgrinder has a sort of reputation in local boating community. Meatgrinder was once considered the most difficult rapid in the United States. Many great valley boaters (in an era when many pioneers of the sport like Fletcher Anderson and Roger Paris resided here) passed on the Meat. In the 1980’s, however, the rapid gained the attention of Matt Gaines and Kevin Padden who made the first descent together in 1983. Gaines and Padden had earned a reputation as some of the gnarliest kayakers out there and were even later called “the godfathers of hair boating”. Their descent of Meatgrinder was a benchmark in Colorado boating and a step above Barrel Springs, Pine Creek, and Gore Canyon, which were considered the cutting edge of difficulty in those days. In the mid-1990’s the drowning of Henry Filip in Meatgrinder solidified Meatgrinder’s reputation. Filip was an elite creek boater and part of the group of 1990’s paddlers that pushed Colorado’s boating to the next echelon. It was a sad and tragic event whose consequences resonate in the minds of valley boaters today.

Meatgrinder at 1,000 cfs

In today’s modern era, where even younger generations have pushed valley kayaking into places such as Yule Creek, that I would never have considered even in my more daring days, Meatgrinder obviously no longer holds the title as “the most difficult rapid” in the country or even the valley. I once paddled this section with a pro kayaker from the Fayetteville, NC scene who was disappointed with Meatgrinder saying there was a “green tongue all the way down it”. He claimed he was not only a veteran of but also a contender in many Green River races. Perhaps Meatgrinder isn’t what it used to be, but it still deserves respect. Don’t be surprised to encounter a sort of voodoo attitude towards it from the locals in the valley. If you paddle the Meat above around 1,200 cfs you will especially understand why.

If you put-in in Redstone you will first encounter some very mellow, beautiful corners interspersed with large red boulders and deep pools. These are popular swimming holes and jump rocks during the summer in low water. This area is one of the calmest on the entire Crystal River and belies the tumultuous cascade you are about to encounter in a few corners.

Pre-scout Meatgrinder in its entirety, it is a long and menacing rapid with truly terrible consequences. Logs often jam themselves in particularly nasty locations and the rapid gets rapidly more difficult and dangerous as the water level rises. There is some boogie water lead-in that draws you to the entrance drop, a broken ledge that can be taken center with a dash or left with good boat angle. The best channel depends on the level, though center seems preferred. Logs often clog this first drop. Below the river bends right through some manky gnarly water with holes, laterals, and bad rocks. Some water works left into a class VI channel that is often plugged with lumber. Aim right around a giant red-colored boulder. At lower levels you can eddy out river right just as you get next to the big boulder and catch your breath for the last hard part. As you move around and behind the big boulder there is usually a steep section and a small boof with plenty of opportunities for trouble. Sometimes you can catch an eddy on the left just past here.

For the less hardy, a trail through the woods brings you to a small eddy where you can put-in here below the rapid’s multiple cruxes. This is usually called “Lower Meat” and makes a good way to extend the Narrows downstream. Lower Meat is still challenging, but probably a full grade easier than the upper part of the rapid. Lower Meat does get class V-ish at high water. As a runout, Lower Meat makes for a bad place to swim and a difficult place to make any attempt at a rescue. The difficulties continue for a few hundred yards past sporadic holes and nasty rocks before calming in a meadow before the Narrows.

The Crystal River Valley changes in character a bit below Meatgrinder as it leaves the blocky red sandstone that defined Meatgrinder and the town of Redstone and enters the gray, sharp granite of the Narrows. Takeout on river left at the Penny Hot Springs. At a good boatable level, the hot springs will be underwater, too bad because after the Meat, you might need to decompress.