San Juan River (UT)

Lower: Mexican Hat to Clay Hills · Class II–III · UT

Lottery

15,200Oct 22 snapshot

High

Snapshot from Oct 22, 2026. Live reading loading.

Runnable range 500 to 6,000 cfs. This is a draft estimate that paddlers have not reviewed yet.

Season

Year-round, busiest in May and June

Character

A 57-mile run, usually 4 to 5 days, ending at Clay Hills near Lake Powell.

Watch for

Government Rapid, near river mile 64, often needs scouting. Camping below it is limited to nine designated sites reserved through the BLM Monticello Field Office. Clay Hills is the only take-out, and a dangerous waterfall lies below it. Larger boats can struggle on mud bars from Slickhorn Canyon at low water.

Gauge

USGS 09379500
San Juan River near Bluff
15,200 cfs at 6:45 PM MT on Oct 22, 2026 (snapshot)
The Bluff gauge is upstream of this stretch. Navajo Dam releases and flash floods can change levels quickly.

Permit

LotteryOpens Dec 1, in 29 days.

Apply Dec 1 to Jan 31 on Recreation.gov. Results Feb 14.

Apply on Recreation.gov Official page

Fees and rules

Fees are listed on the Recreation.gov permit page.

Permits are required year-round. The lottery covers launches from Apr 15 to Jul 15. Other launch dates are first come, first served.

Source: Recreation.gov listing as summarized by a third-party permit tracker. Confirm on Recreation.gov.

Snowpack

San Juan (incl. Animas, Piedra)Early seasonDam-regulated

Snow water equivalent 1.9 in. Early season — median too low for a meaningful %.

Dam-regulated: Navajo Dam. Flows on this river also depend on reservoir releases — snowpack alone does not determine flows. Applies to the San Juan in Utah. The Animas, Piedra and Pagosa runs are not controlled by Navajo Dam.

Outlook indicator, not a flow forecast. Spring temperatures, rain, soil moisture, dust on snow and reservoir releases also matter. NRCS SNOTEL data as of Oct 31, 2026 (provisional).

See basin snowpack

Other sections of San Juan River (UT)

Upper: Sand Island to Mexican Hat

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.