Walnut Creek, Pennsylvania, US

Cherry St Ext to Millcreek Mall (Upper Walnut)

Upper Walnut Put-In

Upper Walnut Put-In
Photo by Jonathan Janicki taken 09/08/10

Gauge Information

River Description

From Cherry Street Extension Walnut quickly enters into a narrow gorge, (except for the part you can see from Barnes and Noble and the Wendy's drive thru) but the whitewater remains tame for a while.  The first 2 miles are mostly Class I with a few downed trees that you have to portage and few Class II ledges interspersed.  At mile 2.1, a footbridge marks the beginning of the larger ledges which are sometimes too shallow to be interesting, but nonetheless, two Class III ledges abound after this point.  The two Class III's are 10 to 12 feet in height dropping over 30 yard stretches.  The first one is right beside the Kentucky Fried Chicken (The Colonel's Rotisory.)  You can recognise it by a tall metal gate on the right side of the creek and extends part way into the water.  Here a small wide drop leads into a cascade that crashes into the right bank and pours into a round pool that has a nice wave train in it at some levels.  The round pool offers great eddy access to the wave train.  You can ride "The Rotisory" upstream to surf in the wave train.  Immediatly downstream, a wide ledge (Barnes and Noble Ledge) leads into a small drop off.  The drop off hole is good for surfing at some levels, especially on the right side.  After one more small ledge beside the Wendy's (Dave Thomas's), you will pass under Peach Street and the creek once again becomes flat and flowing with a few riffles down to the Dollar Theater take out (Millcreek Cinema 6.)

Use caution with water levels on the section!  There is a narrow window of acceptable levels due to some nasty strainers that come up quickly on blind bends.  Please read the gauge information carefully on this page.

This section is very narrow throughout most of the run and has a very small catch basin.  For this reason, the reach may be available after a brief summer thunderstorm with terrential rains of 1/2" or more.  The strange thing is, Lower Walnut and all of Elk Creek may not even run on such a day!  Such a flash flood spreads out as it moves downstream and doesn't significantly effect the water levels on larger reaches.  I call these short severe thunderstorms "gauly washers."  Little Elk may also be subject to this situatation, but you if you run that one you will have to scrape your way down a few miles of the main stem of Elk in low water after reaching the Little Elk's mouth.

Access is really good for this section.  At the put in, cross over Walnut Creek heading south on Cherry Street Extension and there is a pull off on the right side of the road just after crossing the creek.  Don't go too far up the hill because the land is posted up that way.

At the take out, park on the side of the Dollar Theater that faces I-79.  There you will find a little trail that heads down to the creek.  Parking is close to the creek, but seperated by thick woods.  Don't miss the take out.  If you pass under I-79, you've gone too far.