Lower Deschutes

BLM boater pass river, Segments 1 to 5 · Class II–III · OR

Reservation

—no reading

No reading

Snapshot from Oct 22, 2026. Live reading loading.

Runnable range 1,500 to 10,000 cfs. This is a draft estimate that paddlers have not reviewed yet.

Season: Boater Pass required year-round; peak-season limits May 15 to Oct 15
Character: A desert canyon river that runs from Pelton Dam to the Columbia, designated an Oregon Scenic Waterway and a Federal Wild and Scenic River in its last 100 miles.
Watch for: Sherars Falls (river mile 44) is a 15-foot vertical drop. Whitehorse Rapids (river mile 75) drops about 35 to 40 feet in a mile.
Gauge: USGS 14103000
Deschutes River at Moody near Biggs
No reading in the Oct 22, 2026 snapshot.
A downstream gauge. Flows are regulated by upstream dams, so the reading is a rough guide for the whole river.
Permit: Reservation
No lottery. Reserve a boater pass on Recreation.gov up to 26 weeks ahead.
Apply on Recreation.gov Official page
Fees and rules
$6 non-refundable reservation fee per pass, plus a $5 recreation fee per person per day.
A Boater Pass is required year-round for day and overnight use by anyone using a watercraft or other floating device on the Lower Deschutes. Limited-entry access applies in peak season: Segment 1 on Fridays through Sundays from May 15 to Sep 15, and Segment 4 seven days a week from May 15 to Oct 15. Segments 2 and 3A/3B have no limits. Groups are limited to 16 people in Segments 1, 3B and 4 and 24 people in Segments 2 and 3A. Motorized boating is not allowed in Segment 3 from Jun 15 to Sep 30, and campfires are banned Jun 1 to Oct 15. Warm Springs Tribal permits are also required for Harpham Flat and Sandy Beach access.
Source: Recreation.gov and BLM Lower Deschutes pages. The pages do not give full segment boundaries; see the BLM camping and segments page.
Snowpack: No snowpack basin is linked to this run. Flows here are mostly set by dam releases, so snowpack is a poor guide.

Trip reports

Wavetrain is an early build. Flow readings are USGS provisional data and may be revised. Runnable ranges and run details are drafts for paddlers to review. Permit dates and rules come from the agency pages linked on each permit and can change. Snowpack figures come from NRCS SNOTEL stations, are provisional, and are grouped into basins by watershed, so they may differ from official NRCS basin reports. Nothing here replaces scouting, local knowledge or a conversation with a nearby outfitter.