Silverthorne – Christian “Campy” Campton bubbles with excitement when he considers the Blue River, normally a shallow riffle but now swollen with boat-floating runoff.
“It looks like we’re going to have a great season on the Blue,” said Campton, the owner of Frisco-based Kodi Rafting. “We’re anticipating a solid four- to six-week season. In the past six years, it’s run anywhere from two days to 14 days. We are amped on this.”
But the unexpected windfall in Summit County – in great part a result of heavy snowfall on the opposite side of the Continental Divide this past winter – is not being felt uniformly across the state, where Mother Nature proved fickle and arbitrary.
“It really varies around the state,” said Michael Gillespie, snow-survey supervisor for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service. “Parts of the state got a lot of snow. But in other places, we expect melt-out dates anywhere from a month to six weeks sooner.”
The Yampa River basin in northwestern Colorado, for instance, is down to about 29 percent of its average snowpack, and officials along the Gunnison River are expecting only about half of the normal flows as spring turns into summer.
“Everything is happening about a month ahead of schedule,” said Lori Jazwick of the Routt Natural Resources Conservation Service. “I don’t think anyone realizes what’s going to happen later on. We have plenty of water right now, but it’s early, and some people aren’t even irrigating yet. But when they start, there might not be enough water for them.”
The reservoirs along the South Platte all are nearly full – weeks ahead of schedule – and metro-area water suppliers are in rare jubilant spirits even while they continue to encourage water conservation among their customers.
“We had a really good winter,” said Marc Waage, manager of raw water supply for the Denver Water Board. “We’ve been able to store water throughout the winter, which is unheard of. That put our reservoirs at the start of spring runoff at the highest they’ve been in about 40 years.”
In fact, Antero Reservoir, which was drained completely during the worst of the drought in 2002, was filled completely last week and will open for fishing July 17.
The blizzards along the Front Range also meant Denver Water never opened the Roberts Tunnel, which pipes water from Dillon Reservoir to the South Platte and the metro area.
And now, as the snow melts off the high peaks of Summit County, much of it is being allowed to flow through the Dillon dam and down into the lower Blue River, bringing delight to Campton and his clients.
“It’s at a really fun level right now. You’re going to get your face wet,” he said of the river, which is flowing at 720 cubic feet per second, about 15 times more than the minimum flows in late autumn.
The company – one of three licensed by the U.S. Forest Service to run commercial trips on the Blue – also is gearing up for a good season on the Arkansas and Colorado rivers.
However, the Dolores River, in the southwestern part of the state, is too low for rafting, Campton said.
“Not this year,” he said wistfully.
Staff writer Steve Lipsher can be reached at 970-513-9495 or slipsher@denverpost.com.
