Wayne and I floated down Young's Creek and then down the South Fork of the Flathead River to Meadow Creek Gorge. We then portaged the gorge and floated the Cedar Flats section of the river down to Spotted Bear Ranger Station.
On my trips portaging our gear out I took pictures of as much of the gorge as I could, with the idea I might get an opportunity to run it before I die. Those pictures and some comments appear below, possibly of interest to others considering the same. In his book Floating and Recreation on Montana Rivers Curt Thompson has a description of the entire route through the gorge. I do not know what other information is available.
The entrance to Meadow Creek Gorge is the take out for normal floats down the wilderness section of the South Fork. It's a rapid leading into a slot between two cliffs. Beyond the slot, the river is calm and serene.
These photos were taken when the river was running about 900cfs at the gauge near Spotted Bear.
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| Entrance to Meadow Creek Gorge | Downstream Of Takeout | Upstream |
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| Put-in (Normal take-out) Takeout Eddy |
Most of the gorge you can see from the trail is pleasant looking, and most of the rapids look pretty runnable. There are even some places where it looks like you can get out; there just isn't a trail and it wouldn't be very pleasant. But then there are those places you can't see...
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| Composite image of the rapid in the images above
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| Rapid immediately below the one pictured above | |
In his book The Floater's Guide to Montana Hank Fisher has a picture of someone standing with one foot on each side of the river somewhere in Meadow Creek Gorge. That spot may be the one in the center of the photo below.
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| Above Meadow Creek Gorge Bridge |
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| Below Meadow Creek Gorge Bridge | ||
The two photos below are taken about 1/4 mile above the pack bridge. There is a trail on river right up to the bridge.
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| About 1/4 mile above the pack bridge | |
In the middle of the passage through the slot pictured above there is a log completely across the river at water level. Water was washing partly over it when I viewed it at 1800 cfs two weeks earlier; at 900 cfs water isn't going over it, but it is still very much a hazard. I have no idea how long it's been there.
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| Log across Canyon Slot |
Much as I would have liked to, I wasn't up to running the gorge when we got there. So we portaged to the pack bridge and got a ride down to Cedar Flats, where we continued our trip.
This page last updated on 2015-07-16.
