Authorities have identified a 23-year-old Parker man who died Sunday tubing alone on the Arkansas River in Lake Pueblo State Park.
Steven Kelly was below the dam near the Cottonwood Picnic Area when he drowned, according to Colorado Parks and Wildlife.
“It appears Kelly was trying to avoid drifting down the river by tying a rope to the footbridge located there,” CPW said in a Monday news release. “The rope was then tied to his inner tube and his ankle. The tube broke away in the swift water and Kelly was unable to detach himself from the rope before he drowned.”
Authorities say Kelly was discovered by park rangers about 11:30 a.m.
“It is believed he was wearing a life jacket, but neither the tube or the life-jacket were recovered,” the release said.
CPW says with high waters across the state, rangers are discouraging boaters, tubers and anglers from traveling alone.
Kelly is one of on Colorado rivers over the weekend.
The National Park Service said Monday afternoon they recovered the body of a 34-year-old Denver man killed in a rafting accident on the Green River on Sunday in Dinosaur National Monument.
The man, whose identity has not been released, was part of a 16-member private river trip when the raft he was on flipped, dumping all four occupants into the river.
“The paddle raft was flushed down river and recovered by other members of the group,” the NPS said in a news release Monday. “Three of the rafters were able to swim to shore.”
The Denver man was briefly spotted before he disappeared in the water. The release said his life jacket and one of his shoes popped to the surface where he was last seen.
Officials say the area where the Denver man died has a Class 3 difficulty rating. The river was running about 1,670 cubic feet per second at the time he was tossed into the river.
Federal forecasters say the state’s rivers .
Jesse Paul: 303-954-1733, jpaul@denverpost.com or twitter.com/JesseAPaul
