South Fork American River
Coloma / Lotus / Placerville · near Coloma / Placerville / South Lake Tahoe · Gold Country & Central Valley
Rivers & Whitewater
At a glance
- Season
- April–September · Peak: June–August · Spring high water = Class III+ conditions
Permits and booking
- Permit
- Commercial outfitter permits managed by BLM. Private boaters: no permit for most sections. Launch fee at Chili Bar ($10). Marshall Gold Discovery SHP entrance fee applies at Coloma put-ins.
What is here
- Activities
- guided-rafting · kayaking · self-guided
Worth knowing
- Minimum age
- 7 (guided) · 4 on easy sections · No age limit for lower float
- Good for a first timer
- Yes
Guides, rentals and operators
- Operators
- OARS · All-Outdoors · Whitewater Excitement
- Outfitters
- OARS · Tributary Whitewater Tours · Whitewater Excitement · All-Outdoors California Whitewater
Rivers & Whitewater detail
- Nickname
- The Most Popular Rafting River in the United States
- Class min
- II
- Class max
- III
- Trip options
- Half-day (Chili Bar run) · Full day (Gorge) · Multi-day possible
- Key rapids
- Meatgrinder · Troublemaker · Satan's Cesspool
- Intl tip
- Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park in Coloma preserves the original Sutter's Mill site, including a replica of the mill where gold was first found. Most South Fork rafting trips put in directly adjacent to the park. Combine a morning history walk through the park with an afternoon rafting trip — the combination of California's defining historical moment and its most popular river activity in the same three-hour window is genuinely hard to beat.
The guide
California's most rafted river isn't just popular by default — it genuinely earns the reputation. The South Fork of the America…
In the Guidebook
Everything above is yours for free. The written guide to South Fork American River — what it is actually like, and what we would tell a friend before they went — comes with the Guidebook.
Getting there
- Coordinates
- 38.7999, -120.8894