The Cispus River is a typical class V Washington creek, it contains waterfalls, Sieves, boulder drops log jams, fallen trees and a non portageable 30' waterfall. This is one of my favorite creeks that I have run so far mainly because of the beauty, the drops and the creek can be run almost all year round. The very first rapid is about 100 yards downstream of the putin, So if you want to streatch or warm up I suggest doing it before you put in. The first rapid is a 14' falls into a nice pool below the only thing is that right now you have to exit on the river left side the right side sieves out with logs and rocks.

You will continue through a bunch of class III-V boulder gardens a couple with sieves and rock for landings so don't be afrain to scout. You will then come to a rapid that sieves out where most of the current goes. this one you want to run on the left of the toung (rock) sticking out in the first pic and then ride up on to the flat rock below it and boof off onto the side. Then paddle across the current to go left (the Sieve is in the middle drop) and break through a small hole the go throught the last drop (the Sieve is where you can see the two logs in the drop).

After that you will go through some more good rapids then come to a little bit bigger one that you can run either right or left. The right route is a little bit more technical, having to go from river left to right then back again. Then the river left route is a straight shot throug a big hole, everyone that runs it says that its not sticky but I havn't tested it yet. If you do choose the left route be prepared to sub out totaly. Some more rapids come up and then you come to Island Drop, Take out on the island in the middle of the river. You can scout both sides perfectly from the island. The river right side contains two drops, the first one you want to angle river right and try to hit a boof so that you can keep your speed up to punch the next hole/drop. The only problem about this route is that people have gotten pushed under the extremely undercut rock walls. On the other side of the island is a straight 12-14' drop. This one looks fairly difficult but I have seen it run perfectly clean and some not so nice. You want to get lined up with a river left angle, when you drop over and about 10' down is a rock that you land on, and once you make it through that part it want to push you directly into the hole on the river right side of the island.

Their will be some more class III-IV rapid until you are in the canyon and you see a huge horizon line, this is Behemoth, get out and scout on river left. This drop is basically pretty easy, you want to angle from right to left while going over the drop and aim for the rock shelf. Hit the shelf and boof, easy as that, not quite if you don't hit the rock shelf just right you will go over sideways, backwards or who knows what else, I have done all three options. At lower levels the eddies and hole from the falls arnt very bad, but I hear a higher levels the river left eddy can become terminal and you have to go behind the falls to get out. But after the drop the pool exits into a river wide ledge, the left side is the best to go through, the right side at higher levels can become extremely sticky. But if you hit the hole, hit it head on and with as much speed as possible, and if you swim get to shore as fast as you can their is a huge boulder garden right below the hole.

After you go through the boulder garden below Behemoth turn around and look back up stream and check out the distance you have dropped, pretty sweet. After this boulder garden their is one or two class IV drops then it just class II-III to the take out.