The Collawash River is a tributary of the

Clackamas River The Clackamas River is an approximately tributary of the Willamette River in northwestern Oregon, in the United States. Draining an area of about , the Clackamas flows through mostly forested and rugged mountainous terrain in its upper reaches, a ...

in the U.S. state of

Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...

. Formed by the confluence of Elk Lake Creek and the East Fork Collawash River in the

Cascade Range The Cascade Range or Cascades is a major mountain range of western North America, extending from southern British Columbia through Washington (state), Washington and Oregon to Northern California. It includes both non-volcanic mountains, such as m ...

, it flows generally north-northwest from source to mouth through the

Mount Hood National Forest The Mount Hood National Forest is a U.S. National Forest in the U.S. state of Oregon, located east of the city of Portland and the northern Willamette River The Willamette River ( ) is a major tributary of the Columbia River, accounting fo ...

. The largest tributary of the upper Clackamas, it provides about a third of bigger river's low-flow volume. About 35 percent of its watershed of is protected as

wilderness Wilderness or wildlands (usually in the plurale tantum, plural) are Earth, Earth's natural environments that have not been significantly modified by human impact on the environment, human activity, or any urbanization, nonurbanized land not u ...

. Fish habitat in the watershed is rated good to excellent.

Catch-and-release Catch and release is a practice within recreational fishing where after capture the fish is Fish hook, unhooked and returned live to the water. Originally adopted in the United Kingdom by Coarse fishing, coarse fishermen to Overfishing, preser ...

fishing for

trout Trout (: trout) is a generic common name for numerous species of carnivorous freshwater ray-finned fishes belonging to the genera '' Oncorhynchus'', ''Salmo'' and ''Salvelinus'', all of which are members of the subfamily Salmoninae in the ...

is allowed on the

main stem In hydrology, a main stem or mainstem (also known as a trunk) is "the primary downstream segment of a river, as contrasted to its tributaries". The mainstem extends all the way from one specific headwater to the outlet of the river, although t ...

and the Hot Springs Fork tributary, but the streams are closed to fishing for

salmon Salmon (; : salmon) are any of several list of commercially important fish species, commercially important species of euryhaline ray-finned fish from the genera ''Salmo'' and ''Oncorhynchus'' of the family (biology), family Salmonidae, native ...

and

steelhead Steelhead, or occasionally steelhead trout, is the Fish migration#Classification, anadromous form of the coastal rainbow trout or Columbia River redband trout (''O. m. gairdneri'', also called redband steelhead). Steelhead are native to cold-wa ...

. For whitewater runners, the river is considered as two or three sections which range from class II to class V on the International Scale of River Difficulty. Suggested flow range is .

Course

Formed by the confluence of Elk Lake Creek and the East Fork Collawash River, the river loses about in elevation over the between source and mouth. Flowing generally to the north-northwest, the river receives Dunno Creek and Jazz Creek from the

right bank In geography, a bank is the land alongside a body of water. Different structures are referred to as ''banks'' in different fields of geography. In limnology (the study of inland waters), a stream bank or river bank is the terrain alongsid ...

, both near

river mile A river mile is a measure of distance in miles along a river from its river mouth, mouth. River mile numbers begin at zero and increase further upstream. The corresponding metric unit using kilometre, kilometers is the river kilometer. They are an ...

(RM) 11 or river kilometer (RK 18), then Russ Creek and Blitzen Creek, both from the right. Happy Creek enters from the right at about RM 8 (RK 13), then Dickey Creek from the

left bank In geography, a bank is the land alongside a body of water. Different structures are referred to as ''banks'' in different fields of geography. In limnology (the study of inland waters), a stream bank or river bank is the terrain alongsid ...

, and Buckeye Creek from the right. Peat Creek enters from the right at about RM 6 (RK 10) and Farm Creek from the left shortly thereafter. The river receives Paste Creek from the right before Hot Springs Fork enters from the left at RM 4.0 (RK 6.4). Over the last third of its course, the Collawash River receives Slide, Sluice, and Cap creeks, all from the right, passes the Raab Campground, then receives Jack Davis Creek from the left. Two Rivers Picnic Area is on the right near the confluence with the Clackamas River, from the larger river's confluence with the

Willamette River The Willamette River ( ) is a major tributary of the Columbia River, accounting for 12 to 15 percent of the Columbia's flow. The Willamette's main stem is long, lying entirely in northwestern Oregon in the United States. Flowing northward ...

References

External links

Entry
for the river from the

National Wild and Scenic Rivers System The National Wild and Scenic Rivers System was created by the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act of 1968 (Public Law 90-542), enacted by the U.S. Congress to preserve certain rivers with outstanding natural, cultural, and recreational values in a free- ...

{{authority control Rivers of Oregon Rivers of Clackamas County, Oregon Wild and Scenic Rivers of the United States Oregon placenames of Native American origin

Course

See also

References

External links