I love paddling the South Platte River in eastern Colorado. The further downstream from Denver the better. Evans to Kersey to Kuner is a popular river segment which can be paddled year around. Below Kuner the river is getting more interesting to me, but it is more difficult to find enough water there due to numerous diversion dams. The South Platte is filling up some big reservoirs including Empire, Riverside, Jackson and North Sterling. Frequency of dams is not really higher than between Evans and Kersey, but they can take much more water.

Weather and water permitting I am going to extend my South Platte River paddling guide all the way to the Cooper Bridge below Fort Morgan. I have never managed to paddle further downstream. Every 10 miles or so the river is crossed by a highway or county road, so there are many access points. However, planning a paddling trip below Kuner requires checking flow data and some flexibility.

On February 14, 2011 I did a couple mile paddling upstream starting from Masters. You can launch under the bridge (right shore upstream) on county road 87. You need to go over a bridge rail, but not over a fence. This is a new bridge with a plenty of room for parking, In my old reports I was talking about old very narrow bridge and road.

1/4 mile upstream of the bridge there is a diversion dam for the Jackson Reservoir canal. I believe that there is an underwater structure (gate) across the river there which can be lifted, but I have never seen it in an upright position.

I have many miles of bike trails in Fort Collins and neighboring cities of Loveland, Windsor and Greeley. They allow me to follow the Poudre and Big Thompson Rivers on a bike or inline skates. On January 31, 2010 I decided for a little bit further bike exploration – the South Platte River north of Denver.

My photography destination was the output of Denver sewer. In typical winter conditions it delivers practically all water into the South Platte (up to 200cfs, see flow data).

I drove to the Platte River Trail parking at 104th Street and switched to my bike: a tripod on bike racks and a DSLR camera in Kata KT DR-467-BR backpack. It was a test of this setup for biking. It worked pretty well. I am going to try it with a mountain bike on some easier trails.

I followed the South Platte south for about 8 miles. The river looked quite nice in not so nice winter conditions, quite shallow with some rocky spots, chutes, diversion dams and hundreds of ducks. Above the confluence with Sand Creek I reached my destination.

About 200 cfs is coming out from Denver sewer. The entire river is covered by a dense foam for several hundred yards.

It wasn’t easy to photograph this scene due to heavy smell, but, hey, my background is in environmental engineering. Camera: Canon EOS 5D on a tripod. I checked this location on a map for late afternoon shooting, but didn’t anticipate a bridge shadow. I was a little too late.

Just browsing posts created in this blog in Decembers in the last three years. I see a lot of winter paddling on the South Platte River and some memories from summer trips. Late in December 2007 I was still paddling on the Horsetooth Reservoir.

The most significant event was to start paddling WSBS Thundebolt-x kayak in December 2006.

2006

Are My Paddlings Days Over?

Kayak Building as a Winter Project? Stripper, Stitch-and-Glue, Skin on Frame …

WSBS Thunderbolt Kayak in My Backyard

Winter Afternoon on South Platte River with Thunderbolt-X Kayak

12 Pictures and Reflections from Paddling with a Camera in 2006

Kayaks and Politics: Am I a Racist ?

Paddling Sisson Nucleus Kayak on Lonetree Reservoir

Cache la Poudre in Winter by Racing Canoe

2007

Neutral Density (ND) Filters for Paddling Photography

Kayaking the Aland Archipelago of the Baltic Sea in Pictures by Björn Olin

It is not easy to catch good a paddling water in the South Platte River in eastern Colorado. 5 years ago I made a series of trips on the South Platte above and below Fort Morgan. My trip reports had a common title Paddling on Wet Sand …

It seems that the South Platte has a pretty good flow this winter, so I selected 20 miles above Fort Morgan for my New Year paddling. Sunny weather with temperature above freezing (well at least before sunset), a little bit of breeze, and the river flow of ~750 cfs at Weldona.

I was joined by Rob Bean for this trip. We paddled our Kruger canoes (Sea Wind and Sawyer Loon), probably, the best boat choice for winter paddling. We started at Goodrich (hwy 144) around 12:30 and finished 5 hours later under the Rainbow Bridge at Fort Morgan.

The river was slower than I expected – much wider than between Evans and Kuner, but pretty shallow with multiple channels. It was also much nicer than you could see around Greeley. No feedlot aroma! We had three dam portages. The last one over the Upper Platte and Beaver Canal dam was pretty long, but snow on ground helped with portaging.

You can compare my pictures with those shot five years ago during my 30 mile Texas Water Safari training run. I had much lower water (~400 cfs at Weldona) and a nicer weather in May.

Connie helped us with a shuttle. We finished our trip together with a dinner at Fort Morgan’s Memories.

My last paddling in the old year (Sea Wind canoe on the South Platte River above Kersey – December 30, 2009) and the start of 2009/2010 winter paddling and racing season on the South Platte.

Paddling and photographing in a spring time … A selection of my blog posts in May and June during last four years.

Here is a little picture gallery featuring Jeremy in his wildwater kayak from the recent paddling on the South Platte River (Sunday, March 15).

2×5 mile paddling workout on the South Platte River: upstream from Kersey to the Plumb Ditch dam and back down the river, about 3 hours with some playing and shooting at the dam.

The South Platte River below Denver is quite open and usually obstacles are limited to diversion dams. Occasionally, you may loose a deep water channel and be forced to drag your kayak through shallows.

However, during my last weekend paddling I encountered a real log jam blocking the entire river. I launched my Thunderbolt kayak at Evans Riverside Park and paddled about 5 miles upstream. Weather was great for a paddling workout, but not so good for photography.

I found this log jam just below the mouth of the Big Thomson River. It was no problem to walk around it and it would be possible to paddle there with a little higher water. So, that log jam was more like a attraction on the river than a real obstacle. Log jams on the narrow San Marcos River during Texas Water Safari were completely different story.

South Platte River below Denver – GPS/photo river guide

Paddling and Goose Hunting on the South Platte River

Paddling and Photographing South Platte River near Milliken

Winter Paddling, Training and Racing on the South Platte River in Northern Colorado

Old Truck, Young Eagle and the South Platte River Mysteries

A lot of paddling and training on the South Platte River launching at Milliken, Evans, or Kersey. In the end of February, I started my lake paddling season on the Boyd Lake. There was still some floating ice.