What Are You Waiting For?
Get On The Water
Before you decide where to launch, please see information on the safety page.
Check the latest survey our our RECENT CONDITIONS page.
And don’t forget to wear your life jacket!
Places to Paddle, including Kayak and Watercraft Rentals
Indiana Dunes Tourism, a NWIPA partner, maintains a list of local northwest Indiana places to paddle and companies that rent kayaks and other watercraft. Please visit the Indiana Dunes Tourism website for more information.
Deep River Water Trail
Paddling Deep River
Deep River upstream from Lake George
Not recommended! While beautiful, this stretch has an unrelenting series of logjams that make this frustrating for all but the most hard-core paddlers. Most of the adjacent land is in private hands.
Lake George
The banks of Lake George are lined with wetlands, private homes, and parks. With three parks accessible from the lake, and pier access to downtown, you can always take a break and visit downtown Hobart for a quick bite to eat. Respect private property – only land at public parks and piers.
Rugby Field to Rock Riffle
Below Lake George, paddlers can chart a course using any of 5 public landings. This section offers the best paddling. The upper reaches, starting at Rugby Field, tend to be shallow in dry weather. The Rock Riffle can be challenging for new paddlers. Most paddlers should turn around upstream from Rock Riffle: navigating the riffle can be challenging, you can’t paddle upstream through them, and it’s a difficult place to land and portage back to parking.
3.1 miles Rugby Field to Riverview Park
1.1 miles Riverview Park to Veteran’s Memorial Park
1.0 miles Veteran’s Memorial Park to Shirley Heinze Landing
2.0 miles Shirley Heinze landing to Rock Riffle
Rock Riffle to Portage Lakefront
Below the Riffle, the river turns north and intersects the Little Calumet River West Branch near Interstate 94. Paddlers can continue northeast on the West Branch, an almost ruler-straight ditch, until it meets the Portage-Burns Waterway. From there, it’s 1.25 miles to the beach.
8.5 miles Rock Riffle to Portage Lakefront
Lake Access Points:
Amenities: Restrooms/Portable
GPS Coordinates: 41.535085, -87.258620
111 E. Old Ridge Rd., Hobart
219-942-2987
cityofhobart.org
GPS Coordinates: 41.530672, -87.261570
500 S. Lake Park Ave., Hobart
219-942-2987
cityofhobart.com
River Access Points
Soccer and Rugby Field (Start)
GPS Coordinates: 41.536283, -87.255450
245 E. Old Ridge Rd., Hobart
219-942-2987
cityofhobart.org
Distance to Next Access Point: 3.1 mi
Amenities: Picnicking
GPS Coordinates: 41.567505, -87.236588
2701 Ripley St., Lake Station
219-962-7508
Find them on Facebook
Total Distance from Start: 3.1 mi
Distance to Next Access Point: 0.8 mi
GPS Coordinates: 41.571200, -87.240519
5899 E. 73rd Ave., Hobart
219-924-2987
cityofhobart.org
Total Distance from Start: 3.9 mi
Distance to Next Access Point: 3.3 mi
GPS Coordinates: 41.563207, -87.290893
3825 Liverpool Rd., Lake Station
219-391-8482
lakecountyparks.com
Total Distance from Start: 7.2 mi
History of Deep River
Deep River, like all the Region’s rivers, were formed at the southern end of Lake Michigan by the retreating glaciers 14,000 years ago. The river drained the southern end of the watershed into the westward-flowing Little Calumet River.
In 1837, a sawmill was built on the site of today’s Deep River Park. A few years later, settler George Earle built a dam in Hobart, forming Lake George. Earle built a sawmill that continued to operate until 1953. The top of the current Lake George Dam Bridge replicates the original mill. The dam has been rebuilt repeatedly and forms a reservoir that stretches 3.1 miles upstream.
Dramatic change came to Deep River in 1926 with the Burns Waterway construction. The project cut a new channel from the Little Calumet River to Lake Michigan in Portage. Water would now empty more quickly from the area, and river water levels dropped. The outflow of Deep River no longer turned west but now flows east to Burns Ditch.
A small dam at Liverpool Road was constructed as part of the Burns Waterway project that maintained water levels upstream to Lake George. That dam was replaced with the Rock Riffle in 2021 to provide fish passage, improve habitat and remove the failing dam. It did, however, lower water levels as paddlers will notice in drier months.
Deep River is recognized as a salmonid stream by Indiana’s DNR. Save the Dunes, Shirley Heinze Land Trust and Indiana Dunes National Park have significant conservation projects underway along the river. Visitors will find several town and county parks along the banks.