Fishermen will have to wait their turn on just about every Colorado river drainage this spring. Whitewater junkies, on the other hand, had better start eating their Wheaties now. Here’s what the National Water and Climate Center’s SNOTEL study has to say about runoff predictions in major river basins statewide:
Arkansas
Snowpack: 114 percent
Snow-water equivalent: 137 percent
Outlook: With such a high snow-water number, 2008 should be among the best ever. Although heavy manipulation of the nation’s most popular whitewater rafting river rarely leads to a truly bad year for boaters, some are definitely better than others.
Gunnison
Snowpack: 121 percent
Snow-water equivalent: 141 percent
Outlook: The Gunnison is primed to pump some big water. Blue Mesa Reservoir, the state’s largest, is expected to fill and spill, prompting major releases of more than 3,000 cfs through the Black Canyon and Gunny Gorge already this season. Bouncy raft runs should last all the way to its confluence with the Colorado in Grand Junction for much of the summer. The upstream extreme around Crested Butte could be off the Richter for kayakers.
South Platte
Snowpack: 99 percent
Snow-water equivalent: 113 percent
Outlook: Paddle hard and hang on to your helmet when the South Platte turns turgid this spring. Big numbers this season are combining with last year’s healthy Front Range runoff, leaving more water in the reservoirs than officials know what to do with. Assuming the state’s rafters and kayakers have a few ideas of their own, the plan is to let the river run wild once Spinney Mountain Reservoir reaches capacity in early June.
Upper Colorado
Snowpack: 119 percent
Snow-water equivalent: 141 percent
Outlooks: Green Mountain Reservoir is pushing some 600 cfs through the dam already, and the river should see an additional boost when the Williams Fork Reservoir upstream fills sometime around Memorial Day. Snow has yet to become flow in major tributaries like the Eagle and Roaring Fork.
Upper Rio Grande
Snowpack: 118 percent
Snow-water equivalent: 101 percent
Outlook: Even as one of the first basins in the state to run, there’s plenty of life left in this southern rio. Wolf Creek Summit, one of the snowiest spots in the state, is chiming in at 121 percent of its insanely deep average.
Yampa and White River
Snowpack: 110 percent
Snow-water equivalent: 123 percent
Outlook: From Steamboat to Utah, the Yampa should see its longest season in years. “We’re putting together a traditional 27-foot raft like I used to run as a kid,” Adventure Bound River Expeditions owner Tom Kleinschnitz said when asked about runoff on the Yampa this spring. “The good stuff, that’s what’s coming.” Despite bumping up to a stout 16,000 cfs through Dinosaur National Monument once already this year, snowpack remains at 110 percent.
San Miguel, Dolores, Animas and San Juan
Snowpack: 109 percent
Snow-water equivalent: 108 percent
Outlook: The southwest is already seeing signs of a stellar season that could include multiple opportunities to float the rarely run Dolores at flows above 2,000 cfs (potentially as high as 4,000 cfs around Memorial Day). Expect the Animas to reach stompy levels with the help of a huge 120 percent snowpack at its headwaters near Silverton, while recreational rafters will appreciate fewer boat-dragging opportunities over the sandbars of the San Juan.
Scott Willoughby, The Denver Post
