Photograph: Flathead Rivers Alliance
Three Forks / The partnership

Who can actually get on this river?

The Flathead Rivers Alliance measures the ramps. DREAM Adaptive Recreation puts people on the water. This guide is where the two meet: what was measured on the ground, next to what the launch actually looks like from the river.

Partners since 2022 18 sites surveyed 17 captured in 360

Working in partnership

The partnership, in their own words

Since 2022, we have partnered to improve the availability and quality of trip planning information for users of all abilities to enjoy the recreational opportunities on our rivers.

Through community engagement, engineering surveys, and planning with agency partners, we have identified river accesses in need of facility and engineering improvements to ensure that users of all abilities can recreate on the Flathead Wild and Scenic River system, and we remain dedicated to implementing these modifications for the benefit of recreators seeking to enjoy the Forks of the Flathead.

Flathead Rivers Alliance and DREAM Adaptive Recreation

Flathead Rivers Alliance

Our mission at Flathead Rivers Alliance is to support and enhance the outstanding and remarkable Three Forks of the Flathead River.

FRA, in their own words

FRA measured every ramp on this guide and wrote the site descriptions. They maintain the launches with volunteers and grants.

What they do

  • Accessibility barrier removal
  • Recreate Responsibly
  • Life jacket stations
  • Water quality monitoring
  • River Youth Program
  • Hazard and debris removal
  • Annual stewardship events
River alerts + trip planning hub Volunteer with FRA Donate at flatheadrivers.org

DREAM Adaptive Recreation

The mission of DREAM Adaptive Recreation is to enhance the quality of life of individuals with disabilities by providing year-round outdoor adaptive recreational opportunities. We support individuals ages 5 to adults with physical, cognitive, intellectual, developmental and sensory disabilities, including Military Veterans.

DREAM, in their own words

DREAM commissioned this guide. Their Paddle Program puts people on this water, which is why the measured access data comes first here.

What they do

  • Paddle Program
  • Watersports
  • Cycling and adaptive mountain biking
  • Alpine ski and ride
  • Nordic skiing
  • Military programs, summer and winter
DREAM programs Volunteer with DREAM

From the Alliance

3 photographs

The Alliance's own pictures of the work behind the guide: the meetings where accesses get prioritised, the safety gear that stays at the launch, and the water it all serves.

A planning meeting around long tables in a community room, a wheelchair pulled up to the table alongside the other seats, with printed Flathead river access reports open in the foreground.
Planning with agency partners and the river community.
Two people in a drift boat on clear water, one standing in the bow and one at the oars, with a cobble bar in the foreground and a pale cut bank rising behind them.
Floating the Flathead.
A life jacket loaner station at the head of a gravel access road: a timber kiosk hung with red life jackets under a sign reading Borrow and Return Here, with turquoise water visible through the cedars below.
A life jacket loaner station at the head of an access road.

Courtesy Flathead Rivers Alliance

What the partnership produced

Counted from the survey and capture records
18 access sites surveyed by FRA
11 of those with full measurements
17 sites photographed in 360
2022 the partnership begins

The measurements are FRA's, taken in the field on their access survey sheets. The 360 imagery is Terrain360's, photographed from the water over two days in July 2026. Seven of the survey sheets carry no statistics yet, and the site pages say so rather than filling the gap.

How the measurements work Browse every site Open the full map
Keep access open

Support the Flathead Rivers Alliance

FRA maintains these launches with volunteers and grants. The ramps get measured because someone drives out and measures them. Give once, or float with the people who do it.

Donate at flatheadrivers.org Volunteer
Outdoor recreation for all

Support DREAM Adaptive Recreation

DREAM runs year-round adaptive programs across northwest Montana for people aged five and up, including the Paddle Program that gets people onto this water.

Support DREAM Volunteer

The Three Forks flow through the homelands of the Séliš, Ql̓ispé, and Ktunaxa peoples, frequented by the Amskapi Piikani. About the homelands