Durango – Floodwaters that have kept western Colorado on edge for five days should soon begin to retreat, according to National Weather Service hydrologist Brian Avery.
Most of the rivers and creeks either will have hit their peak flows Tuesday or will peak today, Avery said.
Abundant snowpack has been melting under a string of record and near-record warm weather across western Colorado, particularly in the southwest.
“There’s still plenty of snow above 9,000 feet, but it will be released more slowly,” Avery said. “But streams will stay high through Memorial Day weekend.”
Meanwhile, in the Denver area, Boulder Creek was closed from Nederland to the Weld County line. The closure includes the section that runs through the city of Boulder. Notices were to be posted this morning.
Avery said the greatest dangers could lie ahead, over the holiday weekend, when hordes of people will set out to enjoy still-high waters.
“Novices should probably stay away from the water this weekend,” Avery said.
The Animas River reached 8,050 cubic feet per second at midday Tuesday in downtown Durango – the highest spring runoff since June 1980, Avery said. He forecast that the Animas could peak today at 8,300 cfs, which would be the highest spring level since 1957.
For many who kept a safe distance, the high water is welcome.
“The drought and the fires were so horrible. To have the Animas River raging like this is pretty cool,” said 24-year-old Jesse Martinez.
On Tuesday afternoon, Santa Rita Park, a riverside greenway along the Animas’ Smelter Rapids, was jammed with Durangoans pushing strollers, walking dogs and eating lunch – all staring, as if mesmerized, by the roiling chocolate-colored waters.
“We all just come down here and watch. It’s like a movie,” said Malia Behr, a resident who remembers the big flows in 1980 and 1985. “It’s wonderful to see again. I just saw a whole tree come down the river.”
Drew Beezley, who runs the kayak school at Durango’s 4 Corners Riversports, said his outfit isn’t taking beginners down any section of the Animas River at this stage. Because of the big waves, Smelter Rapids, usually considered a Class II-III section of water that is fit for an adventurous family outing, could be considered a Class III-IV section, more suitable for serious thrill-seekers, he said.
“It looks big and fun,” experienced kayaker Todd Wright said Tuesday of the cresting Animas. “But it definitely gets the nerves going. You have only so much control in there.”
That’s why Kevin Ditzler and Luke McClure, both 22, decided to run Smelter Rapids on inner tubes Tuesday evening – tubes provide almost no control.
“I don’t know why I came to watch,” said Ditzler’s girlfriend, Piper Kuntz. “It scares me to death. I guess boys have to do what boys have to do.”
Local officials say tubes have no place on a raging river, but people lining the Animas couldn’t help but cheer the wave-tossed tubes as they sailed through.
By Tuesday evening, officials’ patience with risky recreation had worn thin.
A swift-water rescue team strung ropes across 50 yards of cliffs and the Animas River to pluck a 23-year-old Durango man stranded for about three hours on a submerged island in the middle of the channel about 12 miles north of Durango.
After allowing Dana Pearson a brief warmup in a heated ambulance, La Plata County sheriff’s deputies slapped handcuffs on him and took him into custody, pending possible trespass charges.
“This has got to stop,” Deputy Suess Beyer said. “Someone’s going to get seriously hurt.”
It was the second rescue at the spot since Sunday.
Pearson had jumped off Baker’s Bridge into a deep pool of the Animas, but he slipped while trying to climb onto boulders around the pool.
The swift, swollen current grabbed him, and he tumbled over rocks, said his friend Patrick Fee. Pearson scrambled onto what was an island until this week’s rising waters covered it with several inches of icy water. Pearson balanced on a log there with his feet submerged almost three hours before swift-water technician Kim Dalen, moved by pulleys and teammates along what is called a drooping high line, could reach him.
Daredevils aside, emergency officials are generally breathing big sighs of relief as the spring runoff slows.
La Plata County emergency manager Butch Knowlton said Tuesday afternoon that the river is putting on a great show and a thrill ride but that it probably won’t create much havoc.
“It’s looking good,” Knowlton said.
In Archuleta County, the San Juan and Piedra rivers have spilled their banks but caused minimal damage to property. However, the smaller Rio Blanco forced the evacuation Monday of 12 homes roughly 12 miles south of Pagosa Springs. Rising water has flooded four of the homes, but sandbags have held on the others so far, emergency director Greg Oertel said Tuesday afternoon.
The extent of damage to the flooded homes is unknown, he said. The Rio Blanco was expected to have peaked by early this morning.
East of Grand Junction, near Coll bran, there are buttercups and vibrant green grass for the first time in several years in the pasture where Sylvia Spangler and her grandson graze their cattle.
The same snowmelt barreling off the Grand Mesa and putting residents along Plateau Creek on flood watch has – at least up to this point – been a welcome sight.
“Water (and the lack of it) is such a big issue in this valley,” Spangler said Tuesday as she and her grandson, Kyle Eneke, dug irrigation ditches through the field. “As long as the creek stays within its banks, we’re not complaining.”
State Water Commissioner Jim Boyd said there is much the same sentiment on the other side of the Grand Mesa, where snowmelt has threatened a few homes in Eckert and Cedaredge along Surface Creek.
Staff writer Electa Draper can be reached at 970-385-0917 or edraper@denverpost.com.
