Grand River / Elora Gorge answers the search for whitewater in SW Ontario

We are down in southwestern Ontario hanging out with family right now. We had heard rumours of some whitewater around here so drove 2 hours up to the Kitchener/Waterloo area and thought a run down the Elora Gorge run on the Grand River would be perfect to test out our new Salus Marine lifejackets. It was down from flood levels a few weeks ago and running around 10 [m^3/s], which seems to be just higher than normal summer flows.

The put in is just below the dam in the town of Elora (park at the baseball diamond and walk across the bridge and then down the path on the opposite side of the road). The old mill is in the background and the new micro dam is just out of the photo on the right. Check out the blue heron photo bombing the picture!

The Elora Gorge is primarily limestone, with cliffs up to 72 feet on either side. At high water it can be quite crazy with a river wide hole that forms in the middle of the gorge and no sneak lines… At lower waters it’s a tubers paradise and a scenic class 2+ float with lots of eddy hopping and mini waves to surf.

The run took us about 90 minutes and we definitely milked it for all we could since we had been off the water for 10 days.

Lots of scenery to check out and enjoy along the way, and warm water to go with it!

It made for a fun family day on the water… If you are interested in going, you can find flow levels here: https://apps.grandriver.ca/waterdata/kiwischarts/rf_uppergrand.aspx (look at Shand Dam).