Kelly’s Whitewater Park is located in Cascade, Idaho (about 2 hours north of Boise) and is absolutely a hidden gem for paddling families. Cascade is a quiet small town tucked into a river valley and surrounded by mountains. With a population of just under 1000 people the economy was historically driven by the Boise Cascade Sawmill, which closed in 2001. The Whitewater park was built in 2010 as one piece of a multi-faceted economic development program.

The whitewater park is located on the North Fork of the Payette River, just below the Cascade dam. There are 3 main features and 2 smaller features which provide something for everyone to play, learn and grow on. There is a great rock island in the middle that makes for easy access to all of the features below the top BIG one.

Our visit definitely counts as early season. The water actually “turned on” 4 days before we got here, jumping from winter constant flows of 200 cfs up to 1200 cfs. It seems that summer peak averages are around 1800 – 2000 cfs. Although there was still snow in the mountaints, our two days in late April had bright sunny skies and temperatures in the low 20’s Celcius (mid 70’s F), and to our surprise, the water wasn’t ice-cream headache cold.

We wandered around our first morning and looked at all of the features. The boys decided that they were going to start at the top to check things out. Hunter was excited to try “the big hole”, which really reflects the growth we’ve seen in his paddling just over the last 3 weeks. He and Tim spent time talking through the green wave, the white burly hole and strategies for paddling both.

Tim had some fun playing in the meat of the hole and Hunter played around with entering on the wave and jet ferrying across into the foam pile of the hole to get comfortable with things.

After playing around at middle wave for a while (see below for more details) Hunter and Tim headed back up to the big hole where Hunter ended up with his first scary experience of being stuck in a hole and being worked. The good news is that he was upside right the entire time and did eventually find a way off the ride, after a scream to the eddy for help.

After some deep breathing and eddy coaching from Dad on strategies to extricate oneself from a hole, he was right back out there putting his learning into practice. Definitely another progression step from last fall, both physical and mental, which is so neat to watch.

Our favourite wave was middle wave – a medium sized wave that stretches across the entire main channel. It fit all three of us at once which resulted in hours and hours of bumper boat surfing and spinning over our two days! Nothing but non-stop giggles and banter…

The best part about bumper boat surfing is that it develops a higher level of comfort on the wave and in the water in general. You learn to manage your boat while many forces are playing havoc with the environment around you – way beyond just the wave itself. On top of that it’s fun so doesn’t feel like learning and skill development!

In addition to the Whitewater park, the area has a 5 mile walking/biking trail, 18 hole frisbee golf course, beach volleyball court, bocce ball courts and tonnes of green grassy areas for kids to run around.

Overall this was a fabulous stop and we are so happy that the spring run-off worked in our favour this year. A summer time visit here, with all it’s amenities and warm temps (water and air) would be so much fun. Lot’s of RV parks within 2km and we boon docked right in the gravel parking lot at the play park. Restaurants, grocery stores, and the movie theatre are all within walking distance. If you haven’t checked out Kelly’s before then you definitely have to put it on your road trip list!