Cache Creek
Rumsey / Woodland / Lake County · near Rumsey / Woodland / Guinda · SF Bay Area
Rivers & Whitewater
At a glance
- Season
- April–October · Best May–June (peak flow) and September–October (warm, lower flow) · Call ahead for current conditions
Permits and booking
- Permit
- BLM Cache Creek Natural Area — no permit required. Self-launch from public access points. Cache Canyon River Trips manages equipment rental and shuttle on private land within the corridor.
What is here
- Activities
- self-guided · kayaking · tubing
Worth knowing
- Minimum age
- All ages · River experience preferred for self-guided · Children with adult supervision
- Good for a first timer
- Yes
Guides, rentals and operators
- Operators
- Cache Canyon River Trips · Whitewater Adventures
- Outfitters
- Cache Canyon River Trips
Rivers & Whitewater detail
- Nickname
- The Bay Area's Self-Guided Option
- Class min
- II
- Class max
- III
- Trip options
- Self-guided half to full day · Do-it-yourself raft rental through Cache Canyon River Trips
- Key rapids
- Cache Canyon Upper Section (Class III) · Lower Cache Creek (Class II) · Rumsey Canyon Section
- Intl tip
- Lake County, where Cache Creek originates, is California's least-visited wine region — Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc from Mount Konocti's volcanic soils, with tasting rooms that haven't adjusted their prices for San Francisco tourism. Combine a Cache Creek float with afternoon tasting at Lower Lake area wineries for a genuinely under-the-radar Northern California wine day.
The guide
Cache Creek is California rafting's best-kept secret for people who have been once and then stopped telling their friends to pr…
In the Guidebook
Everything above is yours for free. The written guide to Cache Creek — what it is actually like, and what we would tell a friend before they went — comes with the Guidebook.
Getting there
- Coordinates
- 38.874, -122.235