Velvet Falls is a Class IV rapid on the Middle Fork Salmon River in Custer County, Idaho, listed here as a falls. It sits at about river mile 5.28 of the Middle Fork's wilderness float below Boundary Creek.
The falls
The original feature was a small river-wide ledge with a drop of 2 to 3 feet. Wildfires later set off debris flows that partly buried the ledge, pushed the river west and left a logjam, and the river has not cut back to its old course. The rapid is continuously changing. It sits at about 5,399 feet in the granite canyons of the Idaho Batholith.
Getting there
Velvet Falls is reached by boat on the Middle Fork run from Boundary Creek to Cache Bar. A permit from Salmon-Challis National Forest is required year-round, and launches from May 28 to September 3 are allocated by lottery on Recreation.gov. Fees are $4 per person per day, or a Salmon Rivers Season Pass, plus a $6 reservation fee. From August 8 to September 15 each permit is limited to 12 watercraft to protect spawning Chinook salmon. No walking route or roadside viewpoint was found.
When to go
Recommended flows range from 700 to 10,000 cfs on the Middle Fork Lodge gauge for the whole run; no range specific to Velvet Falls was found.
On site
Scouting is done from above on river right at the debris pile. Above 3 feet on the gauge, the usual route enters the left channel and moves left to right toward the lateral wave on the right. A 2022 debris flow at Ramshorn Rapid made the Class II+ to III lead-in harder, with reports of torn rafts. Older descriptions of a left-side line no longer match the altered channel.
Nearby
Dagger Falls is about 4.6 miles away, Meadow Creek Falls about 22.7 miles and Lady Face Falls about 26.9 miles. McCall is the nearest town, about 45.2 miles away.
Distances are straight-line.