Canoe Launch

Downstream, the river swings around Symonds Yat Rock into a wooded limestone gorge, reaching the grade-2 Symonds Yat Rapids about 1.1 km from the launch. Man-made rock walls on river right shape the flow there. British Canoeing (Paddle UK) owns and manages the rapids' banks, giving year-round access, and canoeists have used the site as a coaching and slalom venue since the 1950s; Cheltenham Canoe Club runs an annual slalom event each autumn.

The river along this stretch is a Special Area of Conservation and Site of Special Scientific Interest, protecting migratory fish including Atlantic salmon and sea, brook and river lamprey, along with otter, bullhead, white-clawed crayfish and beds of floating water-crowfoot. Natural England downgraded the designation's condition to 'unfavourable-declining' in May 2023, citing falls in salmon, aquatic plants and crayfish alongside phosphate pollution across the catchment.

The 13th-century St Dubricius Church stands beside the launch, its churchyard backing directly onto the riverbank; the church has its own landing stage for visitors arriving by boat, and its low-lying position has flooded repeatedly, with serious damage in 1947 and 2020. Kingfishers and herons work this stretch of water, and a pair of peregrine falcons nests on the cliffs above Symonds Yat Rock between April and August, watched through telescopes staffed by RSPB volunteers and Forestry England.