Kern River

We drove the very scenic Highway 178 up to Lake Isabella.  The road parallels the beautiful Kern River and we stopped so many times that this last stretch took longer to complete than the entire drive to Bakersfield.
The Kern River is the fastest falling river in the western United States.  It originates from Mt. Whitney's massive snow melts and flows down from the Sierra Nevada high country into Kernville.  From there, it joins the smaller South Fork at Lake Isabella and flows downward to Bakersfield, irrigating the crops of the Central Valley. 

We could not pass up the opportunity to raft down these incredible rapids.  There are many rafting outfitters in Kernville and we chose Sierra South because they had a short run called the Likety-Split on Class2-3 rapids.  Because the water is low this year, we were able to take a two-man inflatable kayak down the river rather than a larger raft.  It was a thrill and we plan on a more extensive trip in the future after a strong wet winter.