Flowing through the Northgate Wilderness Area, the North Platte is the best-kept secret in Colorado! Even though there is an abundance of Colorado’s best whitewater, the crowds have not yet discovered this gem. Northgate Canyon begins near the border of Colorado and Wyoming, where the river spills out of the North Park basin and cuts north through the steep, forested slopes of the Medicine Bow Mountains. This is one of the last remaining completely free-flowing rivers in Colorado, where the best whitewater occurs in June. The canyon contains many challenging rapids, including Cowpie, Narrow Falls, and Stovepipe. One-day trips include the upper Northgate Canyon, while two-day trips continue on through the forested canyon wilderness, emerging late on the second day into the rolling, sage-covered hill country of southern Wyoming, where wildlife sightings are common.