Kayakers celebrate just below the old site of the Condit Dam. It was removed last fall from SW Washington's White Salmon River.
credit:
Amelia Templeton
A guide with Wet Planet steadies two rafts that are being pulled through the Steelhead Falls rapid.
credit:
Amelia Templeton
A spawned out salmon above Steelhead Falls. Biologists have spotted hundreds of fish spawning in newly deposited gravel beds.
credit:
Amelia Templeton
HUSUM, Wash. — Curious paddlers can now explore the narrow canyon on the White Salmon River that the Condit Dam blocked for almost 100 years, and paddle all the way to the river’s confluence with the Columbia.
On Sunday, Washington rafting company Wet Planet organized an expedition down the novel section of the river for fish biologists, local kayakers, and conservationists. Two rafts and two dozen rainbow colored kayaks made the trip.
For decades, sediment built up behind Condit Dam. In just one year the free-flowing river has carved a deep bed through the sediment. Rope swings that once hurled children into a reservoir dangle 80 feet above the new river channel, and an old sunken wooden rowboat hangs from a uncovered tree stump.
A small pile of rocks at a narrow spot is the only sign of where Condit Dam stood before it was breached and blown up a year ago, to restore the natural flow of the river and provide free passage to migrating salmon and steelhead.
Downstream, the river plunges through a canyon so narrow, biologist Jeanette Burkhardt could almost reach out and almost touch the rock walls with her fingertips.
“It looks so different, now that all of that water that is supposed to be in the river is back in this stretch. And it’s gorgeous,” she says.
The entrance to the canyon is marked by lower river’s most significant rapid, an abrupt bench called Steelhead Falls.
Guides say the newly opened section of the White Salmon River is changing every month, and is potentially dangerous due to frequent logjams and submerged wood. Don’t try it unless you’re a confident class IV paddler.
Share your experiences as part of EarthFix's Public Insight Network.
Oregon/Washington: Is there buzz in your community about coal trains or new export terminals?
Join our Public Insight Network!
EarthFix is a public media project of Oregon Public Broadcasting and Boise State Public Radio, Idaho Public Television, KCTS 9 Seattle, KUOW Puget Sound Public Radio, Northwest Public Radio and Television, Southern Oregon Public Television and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
