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San Miguel Canyon and the Upper San Miguel River

Caddis Flats to Beaver Creek & Deep Creek to Down Valley Park | Average CFS: 675
Saturday & Sunday, June 7-8, 2025

Late last year Jackson and I decided to take advantage of Mild To Wild’s annual Black Friday sale and booked a trip on the upper San Miguel River for this Sunday with hopes that there would be enough water to run it. Luckily, even though the San Juan Mountains had a pretty poor snow year this winter, there was still enough water to raft the San Miguel at this time, so we planned to head down on Saturday morning to float through San Miguel Canyon from Caddis Flats to Beaver Creek in our inflatable kayaks the day before. A few years back Jackson and I had floated through Norwood Canyon just downstream from here and we were looking forward to checking out these other sections of the upper San Miguel River this weekend.

I left home early on Saturday morning, stopped for a quick breakfast in Montrose and then took a little shortcut over Log Hill Mesa on my way to San Miguel Canyon. After stopping to check out the Lower Beaver Creek Campground to see if there was an open campsite but finding that the only site available was a muddy mess, I returned to Caddis Flats and found a good site for us to camp there. As soon as Jackson and Ken arrived we took our time getting camp set up and then got our inflatable kayaks ready for a run down the San Miguel. After shuttling my Jeep down to Lower Beaver Creek we were on the river shortly after noon.

Getting ready for the San Miguel River at our Caddis Flats campsite.

Caddis Flats Camp

A view downstream from the Caddis Flats Boat Ramp.

Caddis Flats View

Jackson and Ken ready to get on the river.

Caddis Flats Boat Ramp

The San Miguel was fast and splashy with quite a few rocks and boulders around every bend that needed to be avoided. There was no time to let your guard down and I was only able to snap a few quick photos with my waterproof camera along the way, hoping that a few might turn out…

Floating the San Miguel

Down The River

I did enjoy seeing the red rock of San Miguel Canyon which reminded me of the Ponderosa Gorge of the Dolores River.

San Miguel Canyon

The timing of this photo was great- just as I was about to get splashed.

Splash

Downstream

San Miguel Canyon

Although most of our run went smoothly, there was one spot that gave me some trouble. As we were working our way through a few large rocks in a bend of the river I was unable to avoid the largest one and wrapped my boat around it pretty good. Thankfully, I was able to quickly lift my boat up from the middle onto the top of the rock, which was no small feat as the rushing water was pinning it to the boulder, and then quickly jumped inside and slid off the other side back into the current of the river. If I had not been able to get my boat off the rock quickly this could have turned into a bad situation…

After getting my boat off the boulder we stopped at this little rocky island so I could catch my breath and compose myself.

Driftwood Island

Then we continued down the San Miguel River for a few more miles until we reached the Lower Beaver Creek Boat Ramp.

San Miguel River

San Miguel River

After getting off the river and returning to Caddis Flats we spent the rest of the evening drying out our gear and relaxing around camp. The temperature in the shade was very nice and there were no bugs to speak of. We even had a campfire when the sun dipped behind the cliffs of the canyon.

Drying Out

Since we would be meeting up with Mild To Wild at 10:00am on Sunday morning at Caddis Flats, we were able to sleep in and take our time taking down camp and getting ready. It was nice to have a bit of a relaxing weekend for a change.

Morning at Caddis Flats

Morning at Caddis Flats

After meeting up with the rest of the group we were shuttled to the CDOT Boat Ramp near Deep Creek to start our run.

Mild To Wild

Although we were hoping to take out at Caddis Flats this morning so we wouldn’t leave a gap between the two stretches of river we floated this weekend, there were unfortunately a couple of large river-wide strainers just upstream of Caddis Flats, so our trip would be taking out near Placerville today.

    

I wasn’t able to take any photos while we were on the paddle-raft since I was busy paddling the whole time, but I did have a camera on my helmet and was able to get some video from the trip. This is a short clip of us going through Sawpit Rapid, which was probably the trickiest rapid we went through all weekend.

After getting off the river near Placerville and returning to Caddis Flats we said goodbye to our guides and then started the drive back home. I took a bit of a shortcut and followed the Dave Wood Road across the southern end of the Uncompahgre Plateau to Montrose and then stopped for a late lunch in Delta. It turned out to be a nice weekend of rafting and camping in San Miguel Canyon.

>> San Miguel Canyon Photo Gallery

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