River Rafting

For those of you that know me well, you know I love to white water raft the Snake River. This year might be the big coveted year I have been talking about for years. Usually, the river is running at 5,000 – 6,500 cfs this time of year. I stopped off this afternoon on my way through Jackson Hole and they are reporting 21,500 cfs. I have attached an article that says it all, it is long, read it, don’t read it, either way prepare to see some photos soon.

For kayakers and rafters seeking to test the fastest water of the season, this is the week to head for the Snake River Canyon.

Warm temperatures that are quickly melting high-elevation snowpack and swelling tributaries to the Snake have raised river flows to their highest levels of the season. After hovering near 19,000 cubic feet per second for most of the weekend, the Snake surged to 21,000 cfs above Alpine on Monday night, the highest levels seen on the popular stretch in nine years.

“As we approach the first of July, we’re at flows that we’ve only seen in the very, very wet years,” said Mike Beus, water operations manager for the Bureau of Reclamation. Monday’s water levels were unusually high for this late in the season. In 1998, helped by high releases from the Jackson Lake Dam, the Snake peaked at 16,760 cfs on July 4. Beus believes that flows in the Snake River Canyon will continue to rise through the end of the week, fed by the Hoback River and tributaries like the Buffalo Fork that were still rising as of Monday. Though the Hoback River makes significant contributions to stream flows in the Snake River Canyon, the Bureau of Reclamation has no gauges on the Hoback to measure volume.

According to Bureau of Reclamation records, there have been only three years – 1986, 1996 and 1997 – when the Snake has peaked above 30,000 cfs since record-keeping began in 1954. In 1997, the Snake peaked at a record volume of 38,600 cfs. Beus said he doesn’t expect levels to climb that high this week.

Whitewater outfitters have made adjustments to their operational plans to encourage safety during a rare spring where peak tourist season is beginning as the river reaches its highest levels of the season. At a meeting earlier this spring, outfitters voluntarily agreed upon a series of guidelines and safety procedures in response to the higher-than-normal river levels. When river levels are above 14,000 cfs outfitters are launching only 12-person rafts instead of eight-person rafts and above 18,000 cfs, outfitters have raised the minimum age for their trips to 10. Some outfitters are sending cata-rafts loaded with guides down the river with their rafts, while others are floating the river together with other companies to provide assistance if needed.

The melting snowpack has been filling Jackson Lake so quickly that river managers have kept dam releases at 4,000 cfs since June 14. With Jackson Lake at 96 percent full Tuesday morning, Beus said that it’s possible that by Friday releases may have to be increased to 6,000 cfs, though he doubted they would rise any higher. At a public meeting in May, Bureau officials announced plans for releases to peak at 3,300 cfs near the end of June and then decrease to 2,700 cfs by July 2. After cold temperatures and additional precipitation delayed spring runoff and accelerated inflows to Jackson Lake, that plan was abandoned in early June and releases began two weeks earlier than originally forecast.

“We went up there a little earlier and have stayed up there a little longer because we have more water than we anticipated,” Beus said, adding that once the lake is full, weather will dictate dam releases, with the goal of keeping as much water in Jackson Lake as possible. Beus noted that on Monday, Jackson lake increased in volume by 28,000 acre feet of water and held 3.385 million acre feet. On June 23, 2007, Jackson Lake had only 2.95 million acre feet and was dropping at a rate of 40.000 acre feet. Palisades Reservoir was 70 percent full and still increasing in volume Monday.