Rogue River

The Wild and Scenic river that defines Grants Pass and the region

The Rogue is one of the great whitewater rivers of the American West. From Grants Pass it cuts west into the Klamath Mountains and runs eighty-four miles through a roadless canyon to the Pacific at Gold Beach. The most famous stretch is a thirty-four-mile Wild and Scenic section that can only be accessed by raft or on foot via the Rogue River Trail.

Commercial outfitters in Grants Pass run trips from a few hours to four days. The water is reliably runnable from May to October, with the bigger rapids — Rainie Falls, Mule Creek Canyon, Blossom Bar — sitting in the wilderness section downstream. The river also has a celebrated summer steelhead run, and fly fishing for half-pounders in late summer is a regional ritual.

things to do sight
A story
The Rogue was one of the original eight rivers protected under the National Wild and Scenic Rivers Act of 1968. The novelist Zane Grey kept a cabin on a remote stretch of the river and wrote about its summer steelhead runs in some detail; his cabin still stands near Winkle Bar.