Today’s kayaking adventure took me someplace I have never been before. I always love to check out new places!
This trip is a fairly quick 1-hour paddle from Jefferson to the Santiam River Rest Area on I-5. You can see the route in the photo below.
From I-5, you take exit #238 (Jefferson/Scio). You will drive down the road a short bit and travel across the historic bridge. It is the first left turn after you travel across the bridge. From there, it’s a left turn to the boat ramp. There is very little parking available at the boat ramp. You can park your vehicle on the right or left side, but you can NOT park directly in front of the gate. You can unload and load in that spot, but you can’t leave your vehicle parked there. There is a posted sign saying as much. **Word to the wise: when we finished and went back to my vehicle, there was a police officer sitting there watching where people were parking!**
There is a metal gate across the boat ramp. However, there is plenty of room to carry your kayak around the gate. Once you walk down to the water’s edge, this is the view.
The very first thing I noticed as I entered my kayak is the clarity of the water. It was beautiful! As you can see from the photo, you can easily see right to the bottom. Thinking back – I only saw one piece of garbage in the water and my kayaking buddy picked it up. This is quite a difference from the Willamette River.
The trip down the river was a lot of fun! There is good water movement throughout and a few spots with a small amount of white water. I got splashed a few times and it felt so great!
There are two sections of the river where the water goes around a small island. If you’re in a kayak, stay to the left at both spots! There is more water and you will be less likely to get stuck on rocks/pebbles.
The first one you come to is fairly early in your descent. We stayed to the left and then we paddled to the right so we could go up the side we hadn’t taken. The current is moving, but it was totally doable. It was beautiful on that whole side. There is a large rocky area on your right and we paddled until we got tired and then we just exited our kayaks and walked the rest of the way. It was so beautiful!
You can go down this section, but make sure you stay all the way to the right (opposite in this photo), as close to the trees as you can. As we were walking along the river’s edge, I found an agate! I really wasn’t even looking that hard. So, for those of you that enjoy that activity, be sure to stop here!
As we continued our adventure, I was surprised at just how many folks were floating down the river. We were the only ones in kayaks though. Everyone else was on paddleboards or inflatables. I’m guessing it would take twice as long, but the nice part is that there is good water movement throughout this section.
The scenery along the way was gorgeous. From the wildflowers to the green trees and grass!
It’s always amazing to me just how green everything is along the water’s edge. The bonus part – it stays this way all summer!
It seemed like only 10 minutes had passed and we were nearly done. That was easily my shortest kayak trip since I first started kayaking 3 years ago. In the distance you could see the I-5 bridge over the Santiam River. That was our exit point for today. If we had a little more time, we probably would have loaded up and taken a 2nd trip down the same stretch.
You will kayak under the I-5 north and southbound bridges and the exit is on the right. It is located on the west side of the freeway. As I was about to exit my kayak, I decided to turn around and see what the bridge looked like from this side. I’m glad I did. It made for a fantastic picture!
I always love being able to capture the reflections upon the water! It is truly a great picture!
Our trip was just over an hour. We loaded up and headed back to retrieve my vehicle.
Here is something I didn’t know! If you’re going to kayak to this location or from this location – it doesn’t matter if you’re traveling north or south. Once you drive into the rest area, there is a paved road under the bridges that allows you to access to both rest areas from either side! Nice!!
Happy Kayaking, All!
2025 – Kayak Trip #11
Julie, thanks for this incredible resource. My wife and I just started kayaking about a month ago and have been on 8 excursions so far, trying to get in as much as we can while the sun shines. We have a couple of 12′ sit-on-top kayaks that we’ve been using and have a couple of 10′ inflatables on order so we can venture farther from home without having to take our rigid kayaks on the cartop. We’ve been looking for other places to explore in the area and your blog is great for showing us places that we probably never would have thought of. Thank-you for all of your effort in documenting your trips and sharing it with the rest of us. Hope to see you on the river one day…
Nice!