Every spring the show rushes out of the mountains and river people everywhere rush to try and hop in while flows allow, and i am no different. I try and hit a handful of runs coming out of the Uintas every year, in part for the exploration because there is almost no info on many of the rivers and creeks flowing out of the Uintas.
Provo Woodland
Lindsay and I have aborted on this section a few times prior to this year, kept away by the multitude of no trespassing signs and private land nightmares (victory ranch, at the bottom of this stretch, is notorious for it's lawsuits to keep people off "their river" unless you pay for access).
This year I did a bit more research and found two public access points we could use as well as a bit of info about dams on the stretch. We put in at a small turn off right next to the river, seemingly a popular riverside spot just below the upper bench creek road bridge. When we ran this section, the river was at about 850CFS on the woodland gauge and seemed to hit a low point sometime after noon in the diurnal cycle. In general, i thought it was a great run, fast and bumpy/splashy class 2 all the way to just upstream from Jordanelle at a public access point on the lower end of Victory Ranch. Many reports mention that the lower half f the run has an extremely braided river, but our experience was that things were plenty boatable the entire way and the whole run was a great time. There are a handful of major Diversion dams to navigate though.
Some info on the drops: The first one came within ~2 miles of our put in, it is a river wide drop but was easily run hard left, there was wood in the center of the dam and right looked very bushy. The Second dam was best run down the center or taking the left up high (the left channel has very little of the flow compared to the right). The diversion is around a left blind corner and is hard to scout, be aware of the diversion gate on the right at the apex of the bend. These two structures are in the upper portion of the run somewhat close together. The final two dams are somewhat close together towards the end of the run. The third dam is easily noted by a structure to control the diversion river left at the drop. This one is best run just right of center, a big CL3 hole with a few waves. Easily portaged on the right. The final dam in at a rightward bend after a long straight, there is a massive house on the hill above it. This was the most complicated drop of the run, 3+ at this flow and best run far right. Left had a lot of exposed wood and rocks. This one was a steeper drop into a series of holes. It took ~3 hours with a few longer breaks, average speed of the water was around 8 mph.
After a fast and somewhat stressful day on the Woodland section of the Provo with Lindsay, instead of trying the east fork of the Bear which has been on my mind for a few years, but is supposedly very wood choked and CL3+, we set out for the Blacks Fork River, another zone i have been thinking about for quite a while now. We set up camp on te shores of Meeks Cabin Reservoir, where we would take out for at least one of the forks which we would take all the way into the reservoir.
East Fork of Blacks Fork River
the morning of, lindsay and i decided to try the east fork first on a whim, so we went east at the branch in the road and took it to the end and the east fork of the blacks fork river campground. I suspect one could likely take this another ~ mile or so upstream by hiking, but likely not much further as it was a fairly small river at this point already and splits into two major branches at that point. From the day use/trailhead parking area, its a quick walk to the east fork trail bridge where we put in. I would estimate we had about 300CFS to float on.
The east fork starts fast and splashy, busy but only moving about 6 mph. At 300cfs many of the rocks are barely under the surface and, although things are definitely boatable, there was a lot of rock dodging and the occasional bump and grind which continued for about the first 1.5 miles. In 2025, at about 1.5 miles from the east fork trail bridge, there was a barely visible barbed wire fence across the entire river that required portage, then between 1.8 and 2.8 miles from the bridge there were 3 significant log jams that required portage and significantly slowed progress. From that point, though, things are clear for the rest of the river. Shortly after the last log jam you pass into an open meadow and things slow for a few miles. As you approach the confluence with the west fork, the river picks back up to a fast and fun CL2. We didn't have any problems with braiding near the confluence but the guidebook mentions this as a possibility. The best take out, if you're not wanting to run the main stem, is the Hewinta Guard Station bridge. Just after passing underneath the bridge there is a great take out/beach on the right. We left camp set up next to the reservoir, though, so Lindsay and i continued down instead. Downstream of the Hewinta is much the same as upstream, however when a large house comes into view on the left, be on the lookout for a river wide wire (bridge remains?). For us it was passable on the right but definitely wouldn't want to be caught off guard with that lovely feature. Downstream, the class 2 water continued right until we hit the reservoir our half mile paddle back to camp. If you want to hit the section below Hewinta, some reservoir miles are required as there are no other take out options higher. For us it was perfect because it put us back at camp so Lindsay could rest while I biked back to the car.
West Fork of the Blacks Fork River
This one definitely goes for many miles upstream of where we put in but that will be left for another trip another year.
With skies that were beginning to darken and give concern, we drove up the West fork road, which was much rougher than I remember it being every time I went out to dead horse lake. A few miles downstream from the usual trailhead river forge there is an open meadow with a (likely private) bridge. We pulled off here which seemed as good a spot as any to start and shortened the day a bit since this was already the second of the day.
The upper bit of this stretch goes in and out of beautiful meandering meadows, prime beaver territory but with a distinctly Uintas feel. From where we put in, we had about 3.25 miles of flat but swift meadow meandering. This changed abruptly at a site that seemed to be an old washed out bridge, where the bridge was sitting on the left bank. Here the character quickly went to the usual Uintas fast and fun CL2 bump and grind. For the most part the channel was clear and we did not need to portage anything, however, just after passing under the east fork road bridge, the channel braids into oblivion. We kept going left thinking that we would need to end up that direction anyway, and found ourselves on an ever smaller creek which quickly became little more than a stream barely a packraft wide. Somehow the channel was always clear, however improbable it seemed, and for the last few hundred feet we were floating through the forest in the most literal sense, going right between trees whose trunks came right out of the water. In a strange turn of fate, i was more worried about wood on the west fork but it turned out to be the clearer of the two. All in all the float only took about 2 hours and we were quickly back at the Hewinta bridge. Unfortunately for me, my bike tire had gone flat and i got to alternate between riding on the rim and walking the bike for the entire return. All in all, these are two great Uintas runs that probably deserve a bit more traffic. I need to come back now and float the upper stretch of the west fork, as well as main stem below the reservoir!
