Plan a float

Pick a put-in and a take-out

Distances come from the river miles FRA recorded at each access, so they are exact. Times are not: they move with flow, wind, and what you are paddling. Everything below reads live off the gauges and is set against the long-term normal for today's date.

Right now

USGS provisional · 7 day trace

See the water right now

National Park Service · refreshed through the day
National Park Service camera looking at the Middle Fork of the Flathead River from the Highway 2 bridge at West Glacier. The bridge, the cobble bank and the river surface are all in frame, so the water level can be judged by eye.
Middle Fork · West Glacier bridge
Why this one

The camera looks at the same water as the West Glacier access at RM 14.9, just downstream of the USGS gauge. The gauge tells you the flow. This tells you what the flow looks like: how much cobble is showing, whether the bank is under, what the light is doing.

There is no USGS camera on the Three Forks. The nearest on that network is 114 miles away in Idaho, so this Park Service view is the only live picture of this river.

West Glacier access All park cameras

Image courtesy National Park Service, Glacier National Park

The next few days

West Glacier · corridor forecast

39° Air now · wind 3 mph

Today 48° 31°
Thu 43° 32° 30%
Fri 43° 34°
Sat 49° 28°
Sun 49° 32° 33%
Mon 43° 27°

Air temperature is not water temperature. These forks run off snow and ice, the water sits in the 50s all summer, and cold water is what catches people out on a warm day.

Weather alerts

Nothing active for the corridor.

NWS active alerts · West Glacier point

Fire and smoke

NIFC · Open-Meteo · updated hourly
Incident Distance Acres Contained
HH Betty Baptiste Hand Piles RX 12mi n/a n/a
GNP West Entrance/ Field Camp Piles RX 23mi n/a n/a
GNP Apgar Hand Piles RX 24mi n/a n/a
GV Teakettle RX 25mi n/a n/a
GNP Logan Pass Piles RX 29mi n/a n/a
STW Folf Course RX 31mi n/a n/a
SL Kerrtail 42 RX 41mi n/a n/a
STW Spring 2024 STW Handpiles RX 47mi n/a n/a
STW Short Star 15 RX 48mi n/a n/a
TL GNA Cyclone Bill RX 48mi n/a n/a
STW Olney North Mech Piles RX 48mi n/a n/a
TL AA RX 52mi n/a n/a
Arrowleaf RX 53mi 50 n/a
TL Dateline RX 55mi n/a n/a
SL Beaver Piles RX 62mi n/a n/a
RX PLN Rock Creek 68mi 5 n/a
RX PLN Twin J 69mi 30 n/a
RX PLN 28 Mile 71mi 5 n/a
Air quality

38AQI

Good

OPEN-METEO · US AQI

Fire restrictions

There is no live feed for restriction stages. Check current restrictions with Flathead National Forest before your trip.

Flathead NF alerts and notices
Access closures

Closures appear on FRA's river alerts page first.

FRA river alerts and trip planning

North Fork of the Flathead

Fork detail →

655 CFS · RUNNING LOW Expect to drag through the shallow bars. Reaches take longer than the mileage suggests.

Elevation profile of the North Fork: 3,102 feet at river mile 0 near the confluence rising to 3,973 feet at river mile 58.2, a drop of 872 feet over 58.4 miles, averaging 14.9 feet per mile.
3,973 ft RM 58.2 872 ft of drop · 14.9 ft per mile average 3,102 ft confluence

Elevation sampled from USGS 10m along the Wild & Scenic centerline. Hover or focus a site to see the panorama closest to the water.

Reach Distance Est. time Drop Ft/mi At 655 Character
Canadian Border Ford RM 58 to 44 14.0mi 5-9¼ hr 261ft 18.6 Low, expect dragging Class II
Ford Schnaus Cabin RM 44 to 39.3 4.7mi 1¾-3¼ hr 91ft 19.3 Low, expect dragging Class II
Schnaus Cabin Polebridge River Access (Upstream) RM 39.3 to 33.9 5.4mi 2-3½ hr 77ft 14.2 Low, expect dragging Class II
Polebridge River Access (Downstream) Coal Creek RM 33.8 to 24.5 9.3mi 3¼-6¼ hr 123ft 13.3 Low, expect dragging Class II
Coal Creek Big Creek RM 24.5 to 15.3 9.2mi 3¼-6¼ hr 106ft 11.5 Low, expect dragging Class II
Big Creek Great Northern Flats RM 15.3 to 11 4.3mi 1½-2¾ hr 49ft 11.3 Low, expect dragging Class II
Great Northern Flats Glacier Rim RM 11 to 3.8 7.2mi 2½-4¾ hr 112ft 15.6 Low, expect dragging Class II

Launch descriptions are interpreted from FRA's access sheets and their photographs, not measured here. The measured ramp gaps, grades and surfaces are on each site page. Drop is read from the fork's long profile between the two river miles.

Middle Fork of the Flathead

Fork detail →

487 CFS · RUNNING LOW Expect to drag through the shallow bars. Reaches take longer than the mileage suggests.

Elevation profile of the Middle Fork: 3,029 feet at river mile 0 near the confluence rising to 5,324 feet at river mile 97.4, a drop of 2,295 feet over 97.5 miles, averaging 23.5 feet per mile.
5,324 ft RM 97.4 · headwaters 2,295 ft of drop · 23.5 ft per mile average · whitewater reach · hatched: no vehicle-accessible site 3,029 ft confluence

Elevation sampled from USGS 10m along the Wild & Scenic centerline. Hover or focus a site to see the panorama closest to the water.

Reach Distance Est. time Drop Ft/mi At 487 Character
Bear Creek Essex RM 53.4 to 48.7 4.7mi 1¾-3¼ hr 118ft 25.1 Low, expect dragging Class II-IV
Essex Paola RM 48.7 to 41.6 7.1mi 2½-4¾ hr 133ft 18.7 Low, expect dragging Class II-IV
Paola Cascadilla RM 41.6 to 30.6 11.0mi 4-7¼ hr 190ft 17.3 Low, expect dragging Class II-IV
Cascadilla Moccasin Creek RM 30.6 to 23 7.6mi 2¾-5 hr 100ft 13.1 Low, expect dragging Class II-IV
Moccasin Creek West Glacier RM 23 to 14.9 8.1mi 3-5½ hr 132ft 16.2 Low, expect dragging Class III-IV · the whitewater section
West Glacier Blankenship River Access (West) RM 14.9 to 9.5 5.4mi 2-3½ hr 49ft 9 Low, expect dragging Class II-IV

Launch descriptions are interpreted from FRA's access sheets and their photographs, not measured here. The measured ramp gaps, grades and surfaces are on each site page. Drop is read from the fork's long profile between the two river miles.

South Fork of the Flathead

Fork detail →
Elevation profile of the South Fork: 3,577 feet at river mile 38.9 near the confluence rising to 4,706 feet at river mile 97.5, a drop of 1,129 feet over 58.6 miles, averaging 19.3 feet per mile.
4,706 ft RM 97.5 1,129 ft of drop · 19.3 ft per mile average · hatched: no vehicle-accessible site 3,577 ft confluence

Elevation sampled from USGS 10m along the Wild & Scenic centerline. Hover or focus a site to see the panorama closest to the water.

Reach Distance Est. time Drop Ft/mi Today Character
Cedar Flats South Fork RM 55.5 to 46.5 9.0mi 2½-4½ hr 126ft 14.1 Gauge unavailable Class II
South Fork Billy Garrett Memorial Bridge RM 46.5 to 44.5 2.0mi ½-1 hr 24ft 11.8 Gauge unavailable Class II
Billy Garrett Memorial Bridge Upper Twin Creek RM 44.5 to 40.7 3.8mi 1-2 hr 39ft 10.2 Gauge unavailable Class II

Launch descriptions are interpreted from FRA's access sheets and their photographs, not measured here. The measured ramp gaps, grades and surfaces are on each site page. Drop is read from the fork's long profile between the two river miles.

How the time column is figured: distance divided by a travel band that shifts with today's flow against the day-of-year median. It is an estimate, not a schedule, and it does not count the time you spend stopped. A loaded raft is slower than a kayak. Class ratings are each fork's overall rating and change with water level. The distances are exact.

Before you launch

Flow tiers · general guidance
BELOW 2,500 CFS

Normal summer flow

Class II water on the North Fork and most of the Middle Fork. The water stays cold all summer, so dress for immersion, not for the air.

2,500 TO 5,000 CFS

Pushy

Eddies wash out and the current gives you fewer places to recover. Wood moves at these levels. Scout anything you have not run this season.

ABOVE 5,000 CFS

High water

Fast, cold water with real consequence for a swim. Launches can wash out and the Forest Service may gate access. Conditions change rapidly.

Conditions change fast

The river environment is dynamic and may change rapidly over the course of the floating season, or even throughout the course of a day. Always recreate within the ability level of everyone in your float party and remain attentive to conditions on the water.

FRA's own guidance

Cold water

These forks are snowmelt and stay cold all summer. Cold shock and loss of grip arrive long before hypothermia does. Dress for the water, not the air.

Current water temperature sits on each fork panel above.

  1. Shuttles

    Most reaches here need two vehicles or an outfitter. Highway 2 parallels the Middle Fork, so shuttles are short. The North Fork Road is gravel and slow: budget more time than the mileage suggests.

  2. Dam-controlled water

    The South Fork below Hungry Horse Dam runs on releases, not weather. It can change fast, for reasons that have nothing to do with the sky. Read that gauge the morning you go.

  3. Fire and smoke

    This is fire country. August smoke is a real trip factor and closures happen with little notice. Active incidents within 75 miles show above and on each fork page.

More from FRA

The Flathead Rivers Alliance keeps a trip-planning hub with alerts, gear, outfitters, and current conditions.

FRA trip planning hub
Homelands

The river system flows through the traditional homelands of the Ql'ispe (Kalispel or Pend d' Orielle) Ktunaxa/Ksanka (Kootenai), and Séliš (Salish or "Flathead") Nations, who have long cared for this landscape, and the Amskapii Pikuni (Blackfeet) Peoples who often traveled in the river corridor.

About the homelands