Boulder, West, Montana, US

above the campground

Barry at first big drop

Barry at first big drop
Photo of Barry Bohrer by D. Schroeder taken 6/05

Gauge Information

River Description

The West Boulder is an excellent run in a wild and incredibly beautiful setting. Start hiking up the trail at the end of West Boulder Road. After a while you will come to a beautiful meadow with the river winding in wide s-curves down the center. The views from this meadow of the Absarokee Mountains are stunning and it is a great pleasure to float through them on the wind-down from the drops found upstream. Continue on for a few more miles. The two major drops (V's) are easily scouted on the way up and are just as fun as they look from the trail. If the holes in the center and river right side of the biggest drop have you biting your nails and the fun factor appears low, you should probably leave this one alone. The other smaller "s-turns" drop runs very cleanly and is a hoot. We slid in just downstream of the river wide log.
A bit further up the trail is an obvious gorged-up section. Scout this thoroughly for wood and know that the hardest part about this gorge is the drops just upstream that are difficult to scout. We put in about a half mile above this first gorge and very soon found ourselves dropping into some chunky, threatening class V. Move slowly through here.
The river is fun, pretty fast, and the gorge and the two big drops are of very high quality. There are a couple of other really fun drops laced throughout West Boulder as well. You will know 'em when you see 'em. The hike is long (6+ miles) but not overly steep and the views are excellent the whole way. Enjoy.

Lat/longitude coordinates, especially of the putin, are a rough approximation, from online maps.