~ 43 miles
Stream: This Eastern Oregon overnight run starts out at 5600', and has more water than most streams you would encounter at that elevation in Oregon. It runs from snowmelt and has a nice long season in the Spring/early Summer.
The stream is clearly immature up near the put in, with minimal incision and migrating channels. You get the high desert experience, with more action than the Grande Ronde, or lower sections of the John Day. The run is II-IV(V).
A couple of us did this run over Memorial Day weekend in 2017, this is the only time I have done the full run (I've paddled the section you can drive upstream to from Dale while in the area on another trip). The stress level was a bit higher than I like on class III runs due to the lack of eddies and the wood concerns, but we still had a good time. I would choose less water next time, probably shooting for 2,000-2,500. Keep the water level in mind as you read the report, less water would change the experience.
The first mile offers a nice warm up, at one island we went left when we should have gone right and had to hop over a log jam.
The start of the significant whitewater is clear, the first rapid can be boat scouted, but as the river bends to the left, hop out on the right and climb up to the trail. It is worth scouting out the next mile of stream if levels are healthy from the river-right trail, while the whitewater is class III/IV the eddies can be scarce, and the wood ever-present. On our trip this section was both fun, and stressful with levels peaking over 3,000 cfs.
After scouting the first mile, we chose to walk our boats along a hundred yards of it, due to the obstacle and others like it visible in the photo.
We put back on, and ran some fun stuff before scrambling into an eddy above a log we hadn't seen. Fortunately it was an easy portage and we were back at it running some more fast and fun stuff. The relentless nature of this section keeps up until the confluence with Trout Creek, which comes in on the right at a point where a large log is in the river. It looks bad from above, but further inspection proved to offer easy passage on the left.
The final portion of the first onslaught of class III+ whitewater.
Downstream the gradient drops slightly, and the wood decreases. Diligence is still required as wood in the wrong place could be tricky, eddies were still rare at our flow, and the corners can be blind. The logs are spread far enough, and the portages easy enough that they don't detract much from the trip at this point.
A couple of the logs on the NF John Day
The further one goes, the less blind the corners, the less steep the rapids, and the less hidden the log hazards. There were some campsites along this part of the run, on our trip many of them had hikers in them as there is a trail along this upper part of the river on river-right. The trail switches to river-left about 4 miles downstream of the Granite Creek confluence in the vicinity of Bear Gulch.
There is a section of good rapids in the mix a number of miles below the first onslaught. This view of the rock formation on the left is the indicator that you are about to enter this next section of whitewater.
Making moves with the rock formation in the background.
10-15 miles downstream of the put in, you cross under a bridge and Granite Creek comes in on the left. I recommend hopping out at the bridge if levels are high, as just around the corner is Granite Falls, a rapid that should be scouted and is often portaged. If you miss the opportunity to exit the river at the bridge, there is a decent last minute eddy at the lip on the right.
Foot bridge, Granite Creek comes in just below on river left.
Zach Collier mentions a nice horse camp his group stayed at near this bridge in his
trip report from 2023.
Granite Creek Falls.
The couple miles below the Granite Creek confluence is the highest quality whitewater of the trip, the longest and steepest can easily be scouted from the right bank along a trail.
Zach and company named this rapid "Little Jake's"
The whitewater is still pretty continuous below here at high water, and long miles of class II are often broken by fun sections of class III (at high flows). The wood situation and visibility improves drastically down here, from this point on the river was read and run. If you are looking for solitude, don't hold out for an ideal campsite down here, by the time you find one you will likely be within access of a road that comes upstream along river-right and one does not typically embark on a wilderness trip to fall asleep to the sound of motors.
Picture taken from the access road.
That said, there are some nice spots down here that Priscilla and I have car camped at on another trip, so it's not a bust if you didn't find something upstream.
When I did the full trip, we found an island that worked ok for us not far below Big Creek, and only one intrepid motorcyclist had made his way that far upstream.
Big Creek confluence
There is class V on this creek, but I have not heard of it being run.
Our chosen island to camp on.
The floating eases further below Big Creek, and there are miles of lazy floating down to about a mile below the bridge at Trough Creek.
Lunch break from another trip
(we drove up to just run the last few miles that day).
When we were kayaking the run, a sign warned of downstream danger, and a scout was mandated by this sign.
We were unsure if the sign was related to the fish-counter not too far downstream, or a section of fun class III rapids further along.
The most interesting rock formations were in this lower roadside section.
And some human formations were neat to check out as well.
Eventually, the stream eased off completely, with some class II's downstream of Dale. Knowing we were near the end it was pleasant just floating along slowly and taking it in. We were further lulled into relaxation knowing the shuttle was already run.
After reaching the take out we leisurely loaded our gear before making the drive back to the Willamette Valley. We took the route back through Redmond for the views, I passed up one gas station while at half a tank and very much regretted that.
Beautiful and new to me roadways helped me ignore the gas-light that had come on.
I pulled into a Redmond gas station a few hours later, an hour after the gas light had gone on. I found out that by really finessing the gas consumption and (fortunately) traveling mostly downhill that our Toyota Yaris can have a tank range of 399 miles.
Back in Redmond was a reminder of why we had the three day weekend.
Flows: 3,000 cfs is the max I would recommend putting on at the NF-52 bridge. It was stressful due to lack of eddies and wood in the upper reaches. If I came back at similar or higher flows, I would put on to Granite Creek. The section of the NFJD below Granite Creek was fun and not very stressful, with better and more challenging whitewater than what we encountered upstream (excluding the initial couple miles to Trout Creek). If the levels were lower I would put in at the NF-52 bridge again.
Flows the days we were paddling the NFJD, Memorial Weekend 2017
Access: We hired the owner of the Dale store to run our shuttle, we were happy with the fair price and the job he did.
541) 421-3484
The entire route is paved.
We took out at a bridge a couple miles downstream of Dale. To get to the put in we headed North 15.3 miles on Hwy 395 from Dale. Turned right, and another right 1.3 miles later in Ukiah onto Camas Street towards Granite. This road becomes NF-52 and 40 miles from Ukiah crosses the NF John Day at the put in.
Take out: 45.001482, -118.989199
Put In: 44.913070, -118.400401
