You have a choice of two places to put-in. The first is about 2.2miles via I-70 or 2.5 miles via river upstream of the New Castle bridge. It can be accessed only from the east bound lanes of I-70. Commercial rafting companies use this spot for their take-out even though there are no toilets. Exit I-70 at New Castle (exit 105), go south across the river, then head east about 2.2 miles mile. Your second choice for a put-in is about 0.5 mile downstream. Take exit 105 then go west 0.5 mile. You will find a nice little park with toilet. You'll also find a nice picnic area and a cement boat ramp. Picture of this park is shown below.
Exit I-70 at Silt and travel south to the river. Put-in is on the south-east corner of the bridge and river. There is a park with plenty of parking, port-a-pottie, and cement boat ramp.
Class I/II (lots of class II)
Report from Jim Mense August 27, 2013: About 2.4 miles below the New Castle boat ramp (3 miles downstream from the bridge) is Janice's Rapid. At 2,200 cfs the rapid is not visible until you are upon it and it doesn't leave much time to get over to a possible chute on river right. It's a boulder dam about two feet high. Here's a Google Earth picture of it from 8-8-2011:
Another CAUTION: 2.4 miles downstream of Janice's Rapid is a tempting channel on river right. Best not to take it because at the end of this mile long channel the river is blocked by an irrigation dam.
