PARK & HUCK: Rock Creek "Money Drop" or is it Dollar & Change now?

Before I get to the new post, I know it has been a couple of weeks since I have put up a new blog. This is because the camera I normally use was lost. I will have a new one soon and will be able to update more regularly. Sorry about the lack of new stuff for those of you that check out the blog on a regular basis. Now onto the good stuff.

After the good rains last week the water had unfortunately fell to low levels again. As true addicts of adrenaline we needed something to hold us over until the next rain. So for those of you that don't know what is going on at Rock Creek here is a little info. Just a few miles up from the Columbia R. Rock Creek has a couple of nice waterfalls. The second of the two seems to be constantly changing due to unstable geology on the river left side. From my knowledge the fall has changed dramatically over 4 times and is now constantly changing due to the continual slides. From what I've heard it was first a big double slide over 5 years ago, although I never witnessed it in this form. Then it changed to a nice 70ftr, after that the hill slid again damming the river and eliminated the falls almost completely. It has since started to erode the away the dirt that filled in the pool and created the nice 35 or 40ft falls that we ran. I also have to tell anyone who reads this that the whole left bank is extremely unstable. The falls itself is about as nice of a park and huck as you can get. But the section just below the pool is so unstable that it is not only unsafe but is closed making it illegal. We did encounter the local Sheriff back at the cars. He didn't ticket us and was pleasant to deal with but he informed us that it was closed and illegal while taking down our license plates to keep on file in case we came back, in which case he would ticket everyone. To give you an idea of the areas instability, when the last paddler ran the falls the eddy that we were using to take out completely disappeared when the hill slid in changing the whole river, eliminating our eddies, and raising the river by feet. The paddler and our safety guy both had to climb back up the bank as quickly as possible to avoid being washed down stream into the nasty snags and sieves that awaited. I am sure that the next big rain will change everything again as the river is in a constant state of chaos down there. It is amazing to see natures power and if you can do it legally I would encourage people to check it out. It seemed pretty safe on the cliff above river right and it is easy to access. But make sure you check if it is legal to do so before venturing down to the falls. There is also another easily accessible falls just upstream that is worth checking out and is not illegal(that I know of).

*Note* The slide was in the news last year when a home had to be burnt down because it was falling into the canyon. Check out rockcreekslide.com for more info. You can see the foundation of the house that was bunt down as well as the other unfortunate people that still live here.More of the slide looking down river. This thing is huge!

The nasty run out we didn't want to paddleThe upper falls on rock creek this varies from 25-45ft. We have run this at higher water, middle right chute.

The lower falls, you can see part of the land slide. This is only a small section of the slide!

The narrow channel/canyon which has to be run, this is the dangerous part!

The entrance and lip of the drop

The lip of the falls

Jim Busse at the lip

Jim B. Sick line!Jim headed for the last chance eddyTony

Me getting vertical

J-Rott's sequence shot

The shot of the slide after Tony's second run. Where the slide stopped on river left is where our 1st eddy used to be!

Here is where you can see how the slide almost dammed the river. The river was barely passable at this point and we all agreed we were very lucky. I guess sometimes ignorance is really bliss!