Granite Creek, California, US

Strawberry Mine to near Cassidy Trail

Usual Difficulty	III-IV(V) (for normal flows)
Length	7.4 Miles
Avg. Gradient	134 fpm
Max Gradient	160 fpm

River Description

Granite Creek is an undammed tributary to the Middle Fork San Joaquin River that was first boated in 1999. It is a very pretty and high quality stretch of river, very continuous, but mostly class 3 and 4.

Getting There: Take Highway 41 through Oakhurst to the Bass Lake turn off. Go to the east side of Bass Lake to Beasore Rd. Drive a long ways to Clover Meadow then follow your map to Granite Creek.

Put - in: From Clover Meadow, drive east 1/3 mile to a fork in the road and turn left onto 5S30. Continue until your cross the West Fork of Granite Creek then turn left onto Road 4S43 for 1/2 mile. Turn left onto Rd. 4S03 and drive to the mine before hiking down to the creek, or hike even further upstream. If the gate is locked just park there and hike 1/3 mile before descending to the creek. Topozone map, google map.
7270' elevation, 37 33' 01' N 119 17' 51" W

If flows are low Launch at Granite Creek Campgrounds to paddle the last and best 5 miles of the run. Topozone Map, google map.

Take - out: Drive to Clover Meadow, then backtrack 6/10 of a mile to a road heading east signed as Cassidy Trail - 5S84. Follow this dirt road for 2-3 miles staying to the right. This road gets rougher the further you go. The last 1/2 mile requires high clearance and the last 1/3 mile is a jeep road. Take out about 1/3 mile past where the Cassidy Trail crosses the creek at the eastern most point of a horseshoe Bend. Topozone map, google map.
6420' elevation.

After the take-out, this creek plummets 800 feet per mile for 3 miles into the San Joaquin Gorge near Balloon Dome.

Google Earth has high resolution images of this area showing both put-in and take-out and the creek in between.

Nearby weather stations at Graveyard Meadows and Green Mountain show temperature, precipitation and snowpack.

A streamflow gauge existed on Granite Creek from 1921 to 1986. Records for that period can be retrieved and analyzed.
Description for this creek provided primarily by Tom Hagberg, 1999.