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 state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of its eastern boundary with Idah ...

. Formed by the confluence of Elk Lake Creek and the East Fork Collawash River in the Cascade Range, 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 valley. The Forest extends south from the Columbia River Gorge across more than of ...

. 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. Fish habitat in the watershed is rated good to excellent. Catch-and-release fishing for

trout Trout are species of freshwater fish belonging to the genera '' Oncorhynchus'', '' Salmo'' and '' Salvelinus'', all of the subfamily Salmoninae of the family Salmonidae. The word ''trout'' is also used as part of the name of some non-sa ...

is allowed on the

main stem In hydrology, a mainstem (or trunk) is "the primary downstream segment of a river, as contrasted to its tributaries". Water enters the mainstem from the river's drainage basin, the land area through which the mainstem and its tributaries flow.. ...

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

salmon Salmon () is the common name In biology, a common name of a taxon or organism (also known as a vernacular name, English name, colloquial name, country name, popular name, or farmer's name) is a name that is based on the normal language of ...

and

steelhead Steelhead, or occasionally steelhead trout, is the common name of the anadromous form of the coastal rainbow trout or redband trout (O. m. gairdneri). Steelhead are native to cold-water tributaries of the Pacific basin in Northeast Asia an ...

. 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 500 to 1000 cubic feet per second (14 to 28 m³/s).

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, both near

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

(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, 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 {{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