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Description
Rock Creek is perhaps one of the largest and longest whitewater creeks that drops out of the Medicine Bow Mountains in Wyoming. The creek boasts some deep gorges with class V whitewater in the hard to access upper section before taming down to a Class II-III river at the bottom.
Unfortunately for the average boater Rock Creek is not an easy run to access. There are several put in options. All of them involve some hiking or a lot of hiking. The takeout is at the Rock Creek trailhead. Options for access include hiking your boat up the Rock Creek National Recreation Trail. This option can be grueling but at least you can see everything you are about to run. There is limited camping along the trail so you could make it a two day trip by hiking the boat in on day one and boating back down the second day. The closer you get to the takeout the easier the river gets so this option lets beginner boaters run parts of the creek.
Your other option is to hike in on one of the upstream fishing trails in Sand Lake, Deep Lake, or by driving over from Hwy 130 and the upper North Fork of the Little Laramie. Regardless of your choice it will involve some hiking and the higher up you get on the run the narrower it will be and the steeper the creek.
You can boat below the trailhead but you will cross into private land and the low gradient and beaver ponds are really not worth it.