An hour outside Redwoods National Park you’ll pass the snaking Smith River, at once wild and dramatically fresh-looking.

On my few trips past this river, I noted just how clear and clean it looks from the window of the car, while driving on the windy, rocky road.

To my astonishment, the river’s pristine clarity isn’t for nothing. The Smith, it seems, is the last un-dammed river in all of California.

Free flowing, That’s a huge claim, and one that had to be explored with a little more detail. My friends and I got our feet wet. It was beautiful.

The Smith River, in northern California. The free-flowing nature of the river—without a single dam along its entire length—makes it especially prized among conservationists and is considered one of the crown jewels of the National Wild and Scenic River program.