Salt River

Highway 60 to Highway 288 (Salt River Canyon Wilderness) · Class III–IV · AZ

Lottery

—no reading

No reading

Snapshot from Oct 22, 2026. Live reading loading.

Runnable range 700 to 6,000 cfs. This is a draft estimate that paddlers have not reviewed yet.

Season

Permit season Mar 1 to May 15

Character

About 52 miles of desert canyon whitewater with a short spring season.

Watch for

Needs a White Mountain Apache Tribe permit as well as the Forest Service permit. Flows change with spring storms and snowmelt.

Gauge

USGS 09497500
Salt River near Chrysotile
No reading in the Oct 22, 2026 snapshot.

Permit

LotteryOpens Dec 1, in 28 days.

Apply Dec 1 to Jan 31. Short Mar 1 to May 15 season. Needs a tribal permit too.

Apply on Recreation.gov Official page

Fees and rules

$16 non-refundable lottery application ($10 for the Wilderness River Program and $6 reservation fee). $125 boater permit fee for winners.

The season runs Mar 1 to May 15. Groups are limited to 15 people and every person needs a photo ID. The permit holder must be 18 or older and on the trip. Trips are non-commercial only. A separate White Mountain Apache Tribe permit is required for the roughly 29 miles below First Campground, and boating is prohibited upstream of Apache Falls. Launch is just below the Highway 60 bridge and the take-out is just below the Highway 288 bridge, about 52 miles downstream. Required gear includes a fire pan, a portable toilet system and a PFD.

Source: Recreation.gov listing for the Tonto National Forest. The listing is inconsistent on the first come first served reservation fee ($6 or $10).

Snowpack

Salt River (Arizona)Early season

Snow water equivalent 0.0 in. Early season — median too low for a meaningful %.

Outlook indicator, not a flow forecast. Spring temperatures, rain, soil moisture, dust on snow and reservoir releases also matter. NRCS SNOTEL data as of Nov 1, 2026 (provisional).

See basin snowpack

Draft details for paddlers to review and edit. Community voting on runnable ranges is coming.

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.