A stretch of the South Platte River along Wildcat Mound below confluence with St Vrain Creek is my favorite river section for paddling. It can be accessed from the county road 19.5 bridge on the St Vrain Creek (north of the power station). This river access is relatively easy without a need to climb any fences. From here you have 1 mile of paddling to the confluence. This may be a start of a longer downriver trip or just downstream/upstream workout. The St Vrain current is pretty mild and you can easily paddle upstream. The South Platte is, in turn, much faster with some shallows and even little rock gardens (easy to navigate). It is more interesting for paddling downstream and more challenging for paddling upstream than the river section below Evans.

During my last trip (March 10, 2015) I shot some aerial pictures of the river at Wildcat Mound from a low flying drone. This place is about 1 mile below confluence. There is a shallow rapid just below the confluence. It gave a very good workout when I was paddling back upstream. River flow was ~120 cfs at St Vrain Cr and ~400cfs on South Platte at Ft Lupton (several diversion dams upstream). For comparison you can check pictures from my packrafting trip in June, 2011. The 2013 flooding cleared all previous log jams on the St Vrain. You can still see these huge cottonwood trees in the water, but they do not block the river.

I am adding the above pictures to Aerial Landscape gallery in my stock photography portfolio. They are available for license and immediate download as royalty free images.

Related posts:
Paddling SUP on South Platte River from Kersey to Kuner
Opening 2015 Paddling Season on the South Platte River
South Platte River below Denver – GPS/photo river guide