Santa Margarita River: Temecula Gorge
class IV+ (<1500 cfs), V- (>1500 cfs)
length: ~7 miles (or 9 miles)
gradient: ~75 ft/mile
drainage area: ~400 sq. miles
elevation: ~1000 ft (put-in), ~450 ft (take-out)
minimum flow: 300 cfs
optimum flow: 1500 cfs
shuttle: 12 miles

      To get to the take-out, 7 miles south of Temecula turn west off of
I-15 onto Old Highway 395/Mission Rd.  Make a right at the stop sign
onto Mission Rd (county Road S13).   In about 1.6 miles, make a right
onto Willow Glen Rd, and follow it two miles down to the river, where it
makes a right onto a dirt road.  Continue about 1/3 mile past the fences
and “no trespassing” signs to a spot with easy access to the river.
The legality of river access here is questionable.  A better take-out is
about 2.5 miles down the river at the Sandia Creek Rd bridge.  To get
here, instead of turning down Willow Glen Rd, continue on Mission Rd
(S13) 3.2 miles through the city of Fallbrook, and make a right on De
Luz Creek Rd.  In 1.2 miles it reaches the river and Ts off.  Make a
right onto Sandia Creek Rd.  This will cross the river in another 1.2
miles.  The put in is reach by exiting I-15 at the southern highway 79
exit (i.e. 79 east).  This is the southernmost exit in Temecula.  Turn
west off of this exit, and put-in on Murrieta Creek just downstream of
the Texaco station in a large open lot that usually has some big-rig
trucks parked in it.


     The Santa Margarita River begins at the confluence of Murrieta  and
Temecula Creeks in the Inland Empire of Southern California, at the city
of Temecula (about 30 miles south of Riverside).  Temecula Creek (the
southern drainage area) has a slightly larger drainage area than
Murrieta Creek.  Just after this confluence the river heads west and
cuts through coastal mountains in the 6 mile-long Temecula Gorge.  From
here it continues 8-10 miles through canyon and enters Camp Pendleton
before opening up into a coastal valley for the remaining 10 miles to
the Pacific Ocean.  It is a common misconception among many Southern
Californians that the Santa Margarita River is the only river in the
region left undammed.  Vail Dam impounds Temecula Creek approximately 10
miles above the confluence, while Skinner Reservoir impounds Tucalota
Creek (which is a major tributary of Murrieta Creek) and stores imported
water.  The site of Temecula Creek near I-15 is disappointing, with
trees clogging the creek-bed due to the lack of water flowing out of
Vail Lake in a normal year.  Thus unless Vail Lake is spilling, most of
the flow into Temecula Gorge will come from Murrieta Creek.
     On February 9th, it was two days after a good storm when I decided
to do a solo first descent through the Gorge (I attempted to get other
boaters, but I either couldn’t contact them or they didn’t want to do
it).  There was a hard shower or two the previous night, but these
didn’t seem to create a lot of runoff.  When I put on there was about
300-400 cfs in Murrieta Creek, and almost no flow from Temecula Creek.
A gauging station is located on river right 100 yds downstream from the
put-in on Murrieta Creek, and this read 1.6 ft. It looked like in the
past week the water level had gotten 5 ft higher at the put-in, and up
to 10 ft higher in the gorge, based on the debris along the banks and
all the grass being pushed down with the current.  Small drops start
right away.  My apprehension at the unknown grew as I floated past the
confluence with Temecula Creek in 1/3 mile and entered the gorge.  As I
made my way through, though, I was relieved to find everything runnable,
and not class V.  I spent about 2.5 hours on the water.  The granite
gorge has a pool/drop character, with about 30 class III/IV rapids in
there, each dropping from 4-15 ft.  The largest single drop is about 6
ft.  I side-scouted about 6 times, and could boat-scout the remainder.
Besides a couple trees on the sides near the start, the gorge is free of
any kind of strainer.  It’s just plain granite bedrock rapids.  Several
are sliding falls of about 3-5 ft  that would make very sticky reversals
with more water.  The pools are often quite short, and many rapids would
merge into one another at high flows.  With the flow I had, the boating
was very technical, requiring precise maneuvering to safely float
through most of the rapids.  On the first class IV (“Hard Hit”) I
pitoned in, cracking the front seam in my Extreme (the boat leaked much
faster after that).   Some after these I thought of names for
(“California Dreamin’” for the second or so class IV, and “Temmy’s Take”
for the largest one in the gorge about 3 miles down), but there were so
many that I’d have to take a pencil and paper down to write out good
names for each.  At higher flows the rapids would be funner, and
probably approach class V at higher levels (it DEFINITELY would at very
high water, where it would be a continuous brown freight train of water
flushing everything down).   This Southern California run is the best
I’ve found in terms of fun rapids for technically boating down and
playing.  It seems at the right flows it would be better than even the
Lower Kern.  The one detraction being that the water drains the city of
Temecula.
     The isolated gorge itself is also very scenic, with typical
Southern California inland chapparel covering much of the canyon walls,
but also some cacti in places.  There’s a decrepit road/trail (probably
from >100 years ago) that runs through much of it, usually 20-50 ft
above the water level, but at one point crossing the river (a small drop
is made from this old low-water crossing).  A couple miles down the
gorge there’s two beautiful clear waterfalls that slide down into the
river. The first comes in on river right, and the second on the left
about 1/2 mile downstream.  They are both in sections with tough
rapids.  After about 5 miles the gorge starts to open up a little (with
a good sized creek entering on river left), rapids become only class II,
and reeds grow in many places of the riverbed. Though slightly
obstructive, these aren’t as dangerous as tree branches, because they’re
easily toppled over. Avocado and citrus orchards appear on river left
first with some houses.  The current continues pretty good to the
take-out at Willow Glen Rd.  I had a bike stashed there on the first
descent, and recognized the place as being at the uppermost part of the
first avocado orchard on river right (the take-out is on river left
though).  Don’t pick the citrus or avocados that grow next to Willow
Glen Rd (I would NEVER do such a thing!!), cause you might risk getting
some angry residents at you.  Continuing for 2.5 miles past here you’d
come to the Sandia Creek Rd bridge.  I haven’t run this section yet, but
it’s probably got a lot of reeds in it, and some class IIs.  When I
looked at this take-out, Caltrans was working there to remove brush and
trees that had clogged the channel under the bridge.  When really
flowing with >3000 cfs, I plan on running the entire length of the Santa
Margarita to the ocean.  The flow has peaked at 76000 cfs in the past
(near the ocean).  What a ride that must be!!  The Temecula Gorge is one
of the finest whitewater runs in Southern California.  Don’t pass up the
opportunity to run it!