Colorado River Discovery

High Water Flow of the Colorado River

HIGH WATER!!!

A good year is quickly turning into an outstanding one on the Colorado River, due to the continuous falling snow in the Rocky Mountains.  Water forecasters keep boosting predictions for runoff.

Almost all of the Colorado River’s flow starts as snow that collects in the mountains of Colorado, Utah and Wyoming from November to late May.  Lake Powell, fills with that water in early summer, rising sometimes by a foot or more a day as the snow starts to melt and water flows downstream. Under the Colorado River Compact of 1922, Lake Powell is required to send a minimum of 8.23 million acre-feet of water downstream to Lake Mead each year.  However, it is estimated that 11.56 million acre-feet of water will be sent through the Grand Canyon from Lake Powell to Lake Mead in 2011.

The spring runoff in the Colorado River Basin has been delayed because of below average temperatures and well above average precipitation. At the end of May, the remaining snowpack above Lake Powell measured 223% of what would be considered the average snowpack conditions. Typically about 60% of the peak snowpack has melted by early June. This year, only 30% of the peak snowpack has melted. Most of the remaining snowpack above Lake Powell will continue to melt during the summer months and inflows will be very high, significantly increasing the elevation of Lake Powell.

With all of this water, we are going to see some of the highest Colorado River flows and most unpredictable flash floods in decades. The estimated hourly release pattern for the next few months may look like this:

June: 23,000 cfs
July: 23,825 cfs
Aug: 23,825 cfs
Sept: 14,840 cfs steady

River flow is measured in CFS (cubic feet per second).  A cubic foot can be represented by something the size of a basketball.  Now put it in perspective, 23,000 basketballs being thrown past you every second.  NOW That’s a lot of water!

Grand Canyon River Rafters should be aware of new and underwater obstacles, large amounts of debris, stronger undertows, faster currents, colder water temperatures, and higher class rapids in places throughout the spring and early summer. Utah river outfitters are expecting peak flows as high as 120,000 cubic feet per second in Cataract Canyon near Moab, three times higher than last year’s peak flows.  However, downstream in Grand Canyon, National Park Service officials and river guides are less worried.  The Colorado is a completely different river in the Grand Canyon because the flow is controlled by the Glen Canyon Dam.  It’s actually low flows that cause concern.  According to experienced guides, rocks are covered up and waves are smoother and slightly bigger.  Rapids are actually more friendly and inviting at higher water flows.

However, down in our little stretch of the Colorado River, the biggest thing we’re noticing is the lack of beaches.  With high releases from the Glen Canyon Dam, the small deposits of sand we use as rest stops along the 15 mile trip have all but disappeared under the crystal clear waters of the Colorado River.  Our adventurous passengers have taken this in stride though.  Sometimes, you just have to get your feet wet!

What an Experience!!

Our staff here at Colorado River Discovery just recently returned from Stuttgart, Germany while attending the CMT travel expo in January of 2012.  Colorado River Discovery partnered with Grand Canyon Whitewater to connect with our German friends about rafting on the Colorado River.

The show was 2 days long and had an attendance of approximately 30,000 people interested in finding the next great adventure in their lives.

Colorado River Discovery and Grand Canyon Whitewater were the only 2 American tour companies at the show, and in fact, there was only one other company representing any tour in the state of Arizona.  The other company was for a resort in Tombstone, AZ owned by a German company.  So needless to say, our booth was incredibly busy the entire weekend.  Their were more than 1000 vendors at this show, WOW!

Our little booth in Germany

Every person that we spoke to about our tours were very excited to hear about the potential of rafting the mighty Colorado River through some of the most beautiful scenery on earth.  Here are a few things that we noticed about the Germans that we spoke to at the show and their travel tendencies.

1.  Many Germans dream of visiting the Southwest United States and encountering all the beauty that we have in this part of the Country.  In fact, many people had mentioned that visiting the Grand Circle was on their bucket list, it was just a matter of finding the time and money to make their dreams come true.

2.  Germans are more interested in seeing as much as they can on their trips to the United States.  For many of them, it may be the only opportunity they have in their lives to travel to this part of the USA.  Because of this, most people we spoke with, we’re not willing to give more than 2 days for any particular tour.  They have heard about all the amazing National Parks in this area and they would like to see as many of them as possible.

3.  Even in the current day of the World Wide Web, most travellers to the United States feel comfortable booking all of their itinerary with a German travel agent that is able to explain in great detail, all of the places they would be travelling too.  Personally, I fly by the seat of my “Iphone” when I travel.

Overall, the show was a success and CRD and GCW brought smiles to the faces of many potential travelers to our amazing part of the country.  We hope that we are able to share the River that we love with people from all over the world and we believe that thousands of Germans left the CMT travel show in Stuttgart, Germany with an excitement for the Grand Canyon and rafting the Colorado River!

Here is a link to another blog post about traveling through the Grand Circle on a multi-day trip that may be helpful to some of you thinking about making your way to the Southwest USA!

http:RaftTheCanyon.com

Here is a great article put together by Colorado river rafters and their guide posted in the Boatman’s Quarterly.  This is a funny way to prepare yourself for for an Amazing trip on the Colorado River.

River Camp

Ten Best Ways to Prepare for a Rafting Trip

• One week before the trip, have a yard of sand delivered to your home.  Sprinkle liberally in your bed, dresser drawers, on kitchen and bathroom counters.  Fill your salt shaker, sugar bowl and cereal boxes with sand and use them as usual.  Place garbage can lids of sand in front of your fans and run them continuously at maximum speed.
• After renting a projection TV, illuminate the walls and ceiling of your bedroom with old Dracula movies, especially the snake, spider, lizard and bat infested scenes.
• Have your friends form a long line.  Then systematically pass the entire contents of your home out of the front and into the back door of your house.
• With an industrial size brush and a bottle of bleach, wash, rinse and sterilize the hubcaps of your car thirty minutes after sunrise and immediately after sunset every day for eight days.
• With a large meat tenderizer, practice beating beer cans down to the diameter of a hockey puck.
• Sit on the hood of your car while riding through the car wash.
• Line your sandals with sandpaper and spend two hours per day on a Stairmaster.
• Drape the allotted contents of your brown grocery bag on the bushes and rocks in your back yard.  Twice a day practice changing while your neighbors watch.
• With twenty-seven friends standing in the shallow end of a swimming pool, practice looking nonchalant as you carry on a conversation and pee simultaneously.
• Crap in your upstairs waste paper basket, then, with your pants still around your ankles, run downstairs and pee in the tub.

Other helpful hints:

• Keep putting out cans of kippers and oil soaked sardines until someone finally eats them.  This will usually take around six to seven days.
• Hand out free beer to anyone that can Eskimo Roll a kayak and looks as if they will rob your house during your eight day rafting trip.
• Put liberal quantities of “Gun Slinger” hot sauce on everything you eat.  Practice saying “I love this stuff” without your eyes tearing and your nose running.
• Always answer “yes” to the question “Do you see any rocks?”
• Always answer “no” to the question “Does anyone want to go on a power hike?”

Sent in by Tim Whitney, who got it from Roxanne Denoyer at Grand Canyon Expeditions, whose passengers created it.

Printed in Volume 10 #3 (Summer 1997) of the Boatman’s Quarterly Review

Reflections of the Colorado River through Glen Canyon

November is one of the best times of year to take photos of the river and the canyon. The low sun light works magic with the canyon walls. I like to keep my camera handy and I shoot whatever I see, like the guides at work, or the reflections in the water, and the canyon itself with the blue sky above. Before I leave the house, I check my supply of batteries, and then I check my settings on the camera. I set my white balance on daylight not auto. I set my quality setting to the highest setting (the most pixels) or the highest resolution. I set my ISO at 200 to 400 so that my camera can give me fast shutter speeds so that I don’t get image blur. Remember when you are on the water, you are always moving. If your camera has “auto scene recognition” mode, that will give good results 99 % of the time. If you have manual adjustments, use a 500^th of a second shutter speed; and if you have control of color use the vivid setting. Turn off the flash for landscape photography and always pre focus by pushing the shutter release halfway down until the camera focuses then all the way down for the exposure.

As far as composition is concerned, use the rule of thirds. Place the horizon line either one third from the top or one third from the bottom not in the middle of the frame. Do the same thing side to side, place the subject a little to the side, not in the center. Where the sun hits the canyon wall and not the water in the river, look at the reflections. Even when moving, look at the wake you make with the reflections of the orange walls with the blue sky mixed together. When shooting people or wildlife, zoom in as close as you can, try not to use the digital zoom but use the optical zoom, because the digital zoom reduces image quality. Shoot several shots of each scene, remember in digital photography many costs the same as a few. Take extra batteries, if you don’t your camera will quit just when you want it the most! Have fun taking pictures, I do. Good luck!

-Frank Talbott

Swimmin’ with the Fishes

The fish that once swam freely in the warm, dirty waters of the Colorado River are in trouble due to the damming of Glen Canyon and the stopping of the natural flow of water through the river corridor. The dam was originally put in place as water storage for the southwest.  No one knew the ultimate impact it would have on the ecosystems down river.

The water is a toasty 48F (9C) year round now that the dam has been placed on the river. The waters of the Colorado before the Dam would reach in the upper eighties, allowing warm water spawning areas for the native fish each year. Now that the waters are cold and clear, the Colorado River is no longer a suitable living or spawning environment for these natives. Arizona Game and Fish introduced rainbow trout into the river above Lees Ferry. The area is now considered to be a blue ribbon fishery. Many people travel to the area for a chance at catching the trophy rainbow trout that are found in the area.

Some of the native fish that once swam in the Colorado River:

Colorado pikeminnow

Colorado Pikeminnow

Said to have once reached lengths of 6 feet and 80 pounds, the most recent record of a Colorado pikeminnow is only 37 inches. Also known as the Squawfish, Colorado pikeminnows were once extremely numerous throughout the entire Colorado River, now they are found only in the Green, Yampa, White, Colorado, Gunnison, San Juan and Dolores rivers. This largest North American minnow only inhabits swift, muddy ecosystems with quiet backwaters.

Razorback sucker

Razorback Sucker

Once widespread in the Colorado River, Razorback suckers now reproducing populations remain only exist in the middle Green River in Utah and a pond near Grand Junction. They inhabit quiet, muddy backwaters. Due to management strategies, suckers are being re-stocked in the Green, Colorado, Gunnison and San Juan rivers.

Humpback Chub

Humpback Chub

This endangered fish is only known from the Colorado River System, and is restricted to a few remaining populations. One of those populations resides in the Grand Canyon. It was historically widely distributed in the Upper Colorado River Basin and extended down the main stem of the Colorado River into the Lower Basin to at least current Lake Havasu. In Grand Canyon, most humpback chub are found in the vicinity of the Little Colorado River and its confluence with the Colorado River. It is a warm water species, and its spawning and recruitment appears limited to the Little Colorado River and the Colorado River confluence in Grand Canyon. An adult chub might reach 20 inches in length, and may live 20 years or more. Population levels have declined over the last decade. Modification of the river’s temperature, expansion of tributary populations, and nonnative fish control are all strategies for improvement being evaluated through adaptive management.

Who knows what the future will hold with these fish? Will they be able to make a comeback like the California Condor or are they on their way towards extinction?

My river time is few and far between, I spend most my time at CRD arranging transportation for our guests.   So when it is a balmy 90 degrees outside, I am usually fixing something or doing maintenance to it.  When I do get the chance to run the river I jump all over it.  This past week I actually made it onto the schedule to run a trip.  I eagerly showed up with Chaco’s on ready to run.  I noticed the other guides had terrific tans and here I am with pasty white feet that hadn’t seen the sun since last year.  As I got my boat ready and awaited the arrival of my passengers I mentally ran through all  my facts and tidbits of information. I sorted through my ammo can to make sure that  all my tools and supplies were there. I looked up to the catwalk and saw the line of guests coming off the bus and in a few moments my boat was full and off we went. I relished the peace and tranquility of the river, the banter with the guests and sharing Glen Canyon with people who had never seen the beauty of this unique canyon.  We were lucky that day to have a California Condor sighting.  As we continued to raft into Lees Ferry I realized how fortunate I am to have this job, where at the drop of a hat I can be on the Colorado River and immersed in its lore and beauty.   Now one of these days I have to go down the Grand Canyon and open my eyes a little more……

-Ray Elshire, Trasportation Director for Colorado River Discovery since 2008

Rafting at the Glen Canyon Dam

Golden Eagle

If you are planning on heading to the Grand Circle to get away from it all, be cognizant that you will not be alone while hiking the trails of the Grand Canyon or rafting the Colorado River.  There is abundant wildlife to keep you company on your travels as you explore these magnificent areas of the Southwest.  Birds have long been a part of the ecosystem of the Colorado River corridor and continually surprise our visitors with their adaption to this harsh environment.

The lush vegetation and diversity of plant species along the riparian zone create many bird habitats in a relatively small area. Of the 350+ bird species recorded in the greater Grand Canyon region, 250 are found in the Colorado River corridor. Only 48 bird species regularly nest along the river while others use the river as a migration corridor or as overwintering habitat. The Bald eagle is one species that uses the river corridor as winter habitat. The trout rich waters of the Colorado River provide a perfect food source for the eagles. Since the construction of Glen Canyon Dam, large numbers of waterfowl have begun using the stretch of river below the dam during the winter, peaking in late December and early January. Nineteen species have been regularly reported between Lees Ferry and Soap Creek, at a density of 136 ducks per mile. http://www.nps.gov/grca/naturescience/birds.htm cited (7/6/2011).

Peregrine Falcon

A guide’s story…

This year I was taking down a group from the History Channel on the Colorado River through Glen Canyon.  They were shooting a segment for a show about the diversity of the Arizona landscape.  At one point half way through the trip, we stopped to film the “Talent” for the show.  As soon as they began to film, I heard an incredibly load noise that sounded like a jet fighter flying just over your head.  I looked up and a Peregrine Falcon was diving at the head of the camera man at what seemed to be around 200 MPH before quickly pulling up 5 feet from making contact with the unaware camera man.  Everyone ask “what the H#$* was that?”, as I responded, “A peregrine, he’s hunting and he doesn’t like us in the thunder dome of his hunting zone!”  Everyone’s faces turned from smiles to anxiety as they realized the potential of the fastest animal on the planet.

California Condor

Another story for the Birds…

3 years ago I had a friend visit me in Page, AZ from southern AZ for a weekend.  We embarked on many adventures in the 48 hours that he was up in this beautiful area.  My friend had asked me if I had ever seen a California Condor in this region.  I told him yes, although it was rare and we decided to see if we could go out and find one of these huge birds of the Gymnogyps family.  We headed off towards Marble Canyon and the Navajo Bridge which crosses the Colorado River over Grand Canyon National Park.  This is the area to see the Condors perched on the bridge and the cliffs on either side of the river.  This area did not disappoint as there must have been 12 Condors in the area posing for the sight seers above.  There impressive wing span of 9-10 feet in length puts the thought in your head that these may be direct descendents of the Pterosaurs that roamed the skies millions of years earlier.  After viewing the California Condors for 30 minutes we began to walk down the bridge toward my vehicle.  My friend’s thirst was quenched and he was fulfilled be the sight of these incredible creatures.  As we were about to exit the bridge, a car with 2 older women drove their vehicle onto the West side of the bridge completely unaware of the Condors soaring directly below their vehicle.  Approximately 1/3 of the way across the bridge a larger Condor flew up from below the bridge and swooped just over the windshield of the unsuspecting women in their car.  The brake lights lit up just as fast as their faces as they look paralyzed from fear of seeing the giant bird up close and personal.  We had a laugh with some fellow onlookers wondering what these women thought in this encounter with this Pteranodon looking creature.  I am thankful that the Peregrine Fund has organized resources to keep the California Condors in North America and I am happy that they make their home in one of my favorite places in the World, the Grand Canyon.  Maybe, next time you are rafting on the Colorado or visiting the Grand Canyon, you can experience something similar to this story which has brought a smile to my face every time I reminisce. Even if it’s at the expense of the poor, credulous women who almost kissed the beak of a California Condor.

With a myriad of wildlife to compliment the amazing scenery, the canyons of the Colorado River are the perfect attraction for anyone who wants to get back into mother nature.  We hope to see you on the river in the near future.

Martin Strel Swims the Colorado River

Super heroes, super stars and super humans have all been a part of each of our lives at one point or another.  Whether it is a professional sports athlete or a comic book or movie hero we came to admire in our youth.  We have all strived to become like these idols we have encountered throughout our lives.

We have always encountered these super humans as physically overwhelming to the eye as well as mentally intimidating.  We can all describe our generic Superman with their chiseled arms, square jaw and piercing eyes gazing down on us with an intense and focused look.  Many professional athletes throughout history also resemble these charters that save the plant, defeat the bad guy and restore peace to a chaotic situation.  Lebron James, Serena Williams and Christiano Ronaldo all share the attributes that make Superman resilient, Wonder Woman strong and the Flash incredibly swift.  We have admired these attributes; and as children, dreamed of the day that we could stand by the side of our heroes with equivalent ability.  These super humans, authentic or invented, have spurred our imagination as to what we could achieve with a little focus and purpose.

Then there is Martin Strel… a 56 year old man from Slovenia.  Strel is not what you would describe as the appitamy of a professional athlete.  He is overweight, his eyes seem sleepy and unfocused and his diet is not made up of protein shakes and multi vitamins.  Yet Martin has swum thousands upon thousands of miles across the most dangerous rivers and waterways on the planet.  Martin Strel is as much a super human and hero as any of the fore mentioned.  He has conquered the Danube, Mississippi, Parana, Yangtze and Amazon Rivers for a total of 12,438 miles swam.  He has broken numerous records for distance and his personal best for time swimming without stopping is 84 hours and 10 minutes.  If the number of miles he has accomplished isn’t enough to raise your interest, consider the conditions of the waterways that he has chosen to swim; cold water, snakes, crocs, piranhas and parasites just to name a few.

Martin Strel has completed these amazing feats with no anticipation of making money or shameless self promotion.  He is a sensible man who has no signs narcissistic tendencies like some professional athletes who will remain unnamed.  He swims because he loves it and he wants to bring environmental awareness to the world about the importance of clean rivers.

In 2011 Martin took on his next endeavor, the mighty Colorado River.  His aspirations for swimming the length of the Colorado River from Dam to Dam were eventually put off when they realized the major risk and bureaucracy of swimming this iconic stretch of river.  Months of preparations and research from Martin and his team landed them on swimming the first 15.5 mile stretch of the Colorado River from the Glen Canyon Dam to Lees Ferry on June 4^th 2011.  With a film crew, medical staff and guides from Colorado River Discovery in tow, Martin Strel took on Read the rest of this entry »