Newbie considering a move to Utah, Help a waterhead

First and foremost, I am a newbie on this board. My name is Bob. I live in Arkansas, and I've been deck boating for 22+years, padding mostly Arkansas tributaries. I've also paddled around Alabama,Tennessee, N Carolina and W. Virginia as well. I am looking and considering a move to Utah and need as much information as I can find about the whitewater scene throughout the area. Their are many hundreds of paddlers here, but only a hundred or Two who reach out for the smaller critical upper class tributaries. I know Colorado is the early summertime place to be, but no nothing of UT's whitewater save for a couple of videos on Youtube. Rain provides us with a potential 200+ navigable rivers, streams and tributaries here. The best being feeders of feeder creeks. Full blown some only run a couple of hundred or so CFS at full flow. These might only be runnable once a year or few years as timing has everything to with catching the wave of water. These rise and fall within a half dozen hours.
First, I would like to know just how many smaller streams there have potential for navigability, and how many run full time or are most all as they are here, being dependent on rains to get them to paddling level. And just how large or small is the paddling community there.
The Arkansas canoe club web site has close to a thousand people registered on their web site, with over 600 actual canoe club members. Visit the site if you will.
Their is one heck of a large paddling community here, and lots of canoe peeps who still don't even know of the ACC's existence. All they know is they like to paddle. The Buffalo and Spring rivers are canoers paradises, and are runnable pretty much year round. They are mostly touring rivers.Most everything else is supported only by rainfall.
Their is a whitewater park in Malvern, Ar which is only usable during release's from Remmal Dam, which is used for electricity generation through the summer, and occasional releases when the heavy rains move through. Give Rockport Whitewater Park a look and tell me what you think. Look up the Official Start Of Summer on youtube.
This and other videos posted by kayakdaddy show but a few of the features which can be played during a normal release from Remmal. This place is a all natural river wide shelf with many dimensions which are playable. Their is a blast spot called suck hole, and a flat 360 spin site known as spin hole. One of the best features is called Lions/ or Tigers jaw. It is the feature where the loops are being thrown.
I would greatly appreciate any and all insight to the world of whitewater in your fare state.
aka Turbo Turtle
ps. I had to edit my external links in my post as the moderators will not let me post such for at least Seven days. I will re post the links soon. Many thanks in advance to all who respond

Hi,

This is the second dryest state in the country. If you're looking for water move to Boise Idaho. That said, we have reservoir fed rivers here (mostly) and a few easy runs have water late in the season. When we have a good snowpack, we get great runoff and lots of things pop. All in all, lots of rivers out here have more water flowing through them than most SE guys are used to. There is a run little park hike and huck called Sixth Water (search it on vimeo and youtube) that flows most of the time. We have a decent amount of paddlers here, just keep in mind we drive 3 to 6 hours to paddle in Idaho/WY/Southern UT all the time. Check out www.utahwhitewaterclub.com If you anti-virus software is up and running good, check out eddyflower.com for a list of UT rivers. Or better yet look it up on Riverbrain.com

Jeff

Hi Bob,
Don't move here for the boating. This year is a dry reminder; although the year before was record-breaking.
Paddler magazine: 13 best Paddling Towns:
http://shoelessjournalism.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/paddler_feature_13towns.pdf

If you do end up in UT, there are folks to paddle with, but not the size of the Arkansas club you mentioned.

In general, in northern Utah, I don't think we have watersheds big enough, or rains big enough, for small creeks to come up that much. Most larger watersheds have one or more dams too, that interfere with rain bumps. Small creeks all run at once at the spring runoff peak, and that is when all the major runs are going too. Virtually all the small creeks I am familiar with are wood-choked, and need significant work for anyone who wants to get on them. American Fork is probably the best example locally.

Boatable rain bumps can happen on the Weber@gateway gauge (Scrambled Eggs bend), the Logan, and a few others, but its rare.

American Whitewater also has an overview of UT runs:
http://www.americanwhitewater.org/content/River/state-summary/state/UT/

Cheers,
Bill

Like Wow, I thought their would be more going on here, but as here, it all depends on the waterfall to guide us to where we need to go. We do have Rockport" which is a year round place to play as long as the electric utility is releasing from their lake. It is just a river wide natural rock obstruction which provides many a place to play, surf, blunt, blast and squirt.
I am also an avid off roader who would more than likely spend an abundance of time at Moab. I'm sure I'm missing something, but it's late and I'm tired and am checking out for the time being. Thanks all/both of you for the input and insight I need to help make a decision. Lol (-;