Washita River
The Washita River begins in the Texas panhandle, flowing into Oklahoma between the Canadian to the north and the North Fork of the Red to the south. It flows for hundreds of miles in an easterly direction in a lazy fashion. As the river flows past the Arbuckles, a formation of granite hills, it turns south and cuts through a ridge at "Big Canyon". At this point the lazy, muddy and heavily red silt laden river drops over several ledges making for some nice whitewater, albeit thick red and gritty. The run is 9 miles between Dougherty and Gene Autry( if you take out above 53) and the true whitewater is limited to 1.5 miles in the canyon, not counting the "sand waves" in the flats.
The following pictures are from Friday,3-24-2000, Sarturday 3-25-2000, and Tuesday, 3-28-2000, at near 2000 cfs, 2400 cfs, 6000 cfs respectively. The saturday pictures are mine, the friday and big water tuesday pictures are courtesy of Eric Juday.
The canyon is class II+ to III+ depending on water levels.
The bridge at Dougherty
Sand Waves
Kathy Miller and Terry Demoe
a steep side creek
