This popular stretch of the upper Cowlitz River offers gentle rapids that will still prove challenging for beginners and beautiful scenery ranging from overhanging old growth forest to vistas of Mt Rainier. Most of the fast water occurs before the junction with the Muddy Fork, so called because of the glacial silt that tints the water white to turquoise. A shorter option that cuts out the flatter Muddy Fork is possible by taking out at the first bridge.