THE SOUTH FORK OF THE CLEARWATER LEGEND OF THE GOLDEN CANYON

Tucked into the southern part of the only inland temperate rainforest in the world is a run meant for those worthy of paddling large class V rapids, a remarkable river overshadowed by its neighboring drainages for the past twenty years. The Golden Canyon of the Clearwater is steep, fast, and continuous for a majority of its roughly eight-mile section. This year, paddlers returned to this Idaho classic in a long-awaited renaissance. Why now? And why has this world-class run been left off the radar of so many, for so long? It's a mystery solved with every turn of this seldom-seen canyon.

Words & Photography: John Webster

Idaho. Nicknamed the whitewater state, it is as famous among boaters for its rivers as its potatoes. As one of the best places in the west to paddle, haven’t we seen it all- The North Fork and South Fork Payette? Mesa Falls? The Jarbidge? The Lochsa? Nope. The four-and-a-half-hour drive from Boise, Idaho (Idaho’s capital) to the campgrounds of the South Fork Clearwater tours you through the states’ best-known whitewater, the road following the contours of the Payette and Salmon drainages, but they are just the beginning. Both rivers feed into the Snake eventually, along with the Clearwater drainage. The drive leads you to the corner pocket of the Palouse, fertile, rolling farmland near the town of Grangeville, where the vast landscape makes one wonder, "How is there whitewater here"?…

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Kayak Session (Digital) - 1 Issue, Fall 2020

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