Huntington Creek, Utah, US

Left Hand Fork

Usual Difficulty	III-IV (for normal flows)
Length	6 Miles
Avg. Gradient	90 fpm
Max Gradient	110 fpm

River Description

This run is a nice addition to a weekend spent on Cottonwood Creek or Ferron Creek. It’s also possible to catch in the Fall as they release more water from the Upper Huntington reservoirs.

The take out is the day parking area at the upstream end of the Left Hand Fork Camp Ground accessed from UT-31. To reach the put-in, head west on UT-31 passed Electric Lake and Cleveland Reservoirs. Turn South onto FR-014 (Miller Flat Road.) There’s a large parking lot and where this road leaves UT-31. There are a couple of options for a put-in. The easiest is to follow FR-014 to Miller Flat reservoir and follow the rough track to the north edge of the Dam. Despite redefining minimum flow levels, this really is pretty convenient. Other options include putting in where the outflow flow Cleveland, Huntington and Rolfson come together. There is one boulder sieve before the confluence with Miller Flat Creek.

If you put in on Miller Flat Creek, you’ll scrape down for ¾’s of a mile to the confluence. Immediately above the confluence is a nice 8 foot waterfall. There are three ledges in the first mile below the confluence. Most can be boat scouted. There’s one more ledge drop that you encounter right before the stream leaves the meadow and cuts into the canyon. From here out, there are a number of low-angle slides, boulders, and plenty of wood. Note that at flows above 150 cfs it would be very hard to stop above some of the numerous logs across the creek (one autumn we literally portaged 20 or 30 times.) Higher flows in the spring of 2005 helped to clean up some or this wood, but there are still some large trees in the river. Of course, the only constant is change so please paddle safe. A trail follows the stream on the north side that allows for easy portaging and exits should problems arise.

There’s a lot of free forest service camping in he area as well as developed (user fee) campgrounds along UT-31. Once you leave the town of Huntington to the east or Fairview to the North, there are no services.

Fun Fact: The waterfall on the cover of the second edition of the guide book is the drop on Miller Flats Creek immediately above the confluence.