Shoal Creek Falls in Joplin, MO

[perspective7]

My boss Kayaks also, so we can carpool...My days of are kind of screwy and a lot of weekends I work on Sunday. Saturday would really be better, but we shall see...

[jedwario]

I lived in joplin for 5 years and ran the falls twice. One time was while it was roaring across the entire dam. The second time was late summer when the water was lower than the photos in the previous post. There is a pourover on river left that usually has enough water to keep you from scraping. I had a friend swim after going over and her boat got stuck in the under cut behind the waterfall. It stayed there for a week, until the next saturday when it was warm enough to swim in and get it.

For those of you in springfield, there is a fun little surf spot on the spring river at carthage. It is at Kellogg lake Park, on highway 96 and makes for a fun afternoon in the heat of the summer when nothing else is running.

Here are some photos from 04 http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/3766 ... t=outdoors" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[ebell]

Is there a guage for the spring river by carthage?

thanks
eric

[Fish]

The falls have been run a bunch over the years. About a 13 to 15 foot drop, and lots of fun at the right levels. It is wide tho, so don't expect help if you get caught in the hole. Minimum level is... well, you can slide off with almost no water if you really want to! I think I've run it down to about 3 ft on the gauge or so - scrapey. The best levels are probably about 3.5 to 4 on the gauge. At 4+, the hydraulic starts getting exponentially meaner (not that you'd want to mess with it at 3.7 either!), so exercise good judgement. A rope will not likely reach you in the hole, so you'll be on your own. Running the right half is not recommended - pretty rocky at the bottom. Left side with some speed is a good line. At 4.2 on the gauge I had a friend get held under for more than 30 seconds in the hole and his boat never came up at all - we extracted what was left of it from a ledge behind the falls three weeks later when the level dropped to about 2.8 or so. Runnable levels are not uncommon at all in the springtime, but it won't hold above 3.5 for more than a few days usually without more rain. At least that's the way it used to be when I last ran it 8 years ago or so. The dam above the falls is not a smart idea for anyone at any level, but it sure makes the photos from below look cool!

I may have to make a pit stop there on some of my trips to AR from KC. :)

- Fish

[GutIt]

I have a video (VCR) from River Madness that features this drop.

It is circa mid 80’s and most possibly earlier. OC-1, OC-2, K-2 (Topo) and kids all doing bow duty.

The kids are now Bad-A boaters and their “mentors” are still ripping it up! These are the Legends!

Right On!

[GutIt]

Stay out of the Crease, Fish!

[GutIt]

Grand Falls is a pretty enough place, and a good place to drop.

But it also has a dark side.

Here are some shots taken by my good friend Plaidpants about 3 weeks ago of Grand Falls. These were taken early in the AM this particular day. I saw it later on that afternoon after the water had receded some. It was one of the most unbelievable sights of pure boiling, churning he** I have ever seen. The ground was actually trembling!

The hole ran from where you can see starting in the foreground around to the other side of the river. It makes a kind of “S” turn back upstream where you can no longer see it. From the corner of the nice little (and easily runnable) tongue in the foreground, the water falls deep into the hole. The water flowing out of this monster was but a fraction of what was coming in and with the size and depth of the ledge, I can just imagine the recirculation going on under the surface and I would guess that you would have to go very deep (15+ feet?) to find the bottom flush. It wouldn’t surprise me if there were a few double hydraulics in play as well.

The boil line when I saw it was approximately 30-40 feet behind the falls with a 2-3 foot vertical upstream drop back into the hole so I would say that at least 50- 60% of the boil was falling back into the hole. I would guess at the level that these shots were taken the boil was closer to 50-60 feet behind with an even deeper upstream gradient.

At some spots, the drop into the hole from the top was 6-8 feet. There are some monster rocks further out toward the middle of the hole around where it makes its upstream bend directly below the ledge, adding to the mix. When I saw this phenomenon, I saw water exploding 20+ feet into the air.

As a civilian, I thought: “wow, that’s a lot of water”, as a boater, I was terrified!

Thanks for the shots, Plaid!

[perspective7]

That's a lot of damn water Terry...which flood was that? The park at Ozark got up to the bridge some time ago...would have liked to have seen that. There are still logs jammed up underneath the bridge. Fascinating! We still need to hit up a creek sometime, unfortunately I don't have much cold weather gear Think a shorty wetsuit + a farmer john with a paddling jacket would suffice? There's a bunch going to Richland tomorrow with nice water levels. Oh well, suppose I should do some work anyway.

You ever ran the dam at the Ozark park? It's some cheap thrills when you can't get too far away. The post about the Spring river looks interesting also...never been.

[ebell]

We saw it Sunday afternoon. It has dropped some from your pics, but was still amazing. The line if there was one was on the river left and where there is normally not any water.

pretty scary stuff.

eric

[GutIt]

This was Oct. 10, 2009.

Approx. 19 ft on the gauge, running somewhere around 25,000 cfs.

This hole is definitely a death trap at this level. I didn't see any way out of it!

[perspective7]

Where's the best boating on Shoal creek as far as having some drops or some surfin waves? Thinking of checking it out this weekend...Looking at Tipton Ford to the low water bridge just down from I-44. Is the boating better further up?

[plaidpants]

I happened to be on shore when Gutit made this run of his pictures going over the Falls. I used to live in Joplin. It is legal to run these if you wish. This is considered public property. I have floated Shaol Creek for many times and miles. You definately want to make sure the water is up some before running. My daughter took the photos of Gut it running them.

[plaidpants]

Here is Grand Falls when the water is up. You do not want to get into this hole when it is this high.