Up a creek due to drought
In the state known as the “mother of rivers,” the third-warmest and driest period in more than a century is wreaking havoc on waterways that provide the economic lifeline for rural communities and highalpine habitat for Colorado’s signature fish, the greenback cutthroat trout.
The extremes of temperature and precipitation — too much of one, too little of the other — have grounded rafting companies in places that usually offer white-knuckle rides. With water barely lapping over jagged rocks, some outfitters have moved operations to rivers fed by reservoirs higher up in the parched Rockies.
“Boats can get piled up and people can get hurt if they flip, and guides were having to use their backs to pull the rafts off of rocks,” said Alan Blado, owner of Liquid Descent Rafting, which is based about 65 kilometres west of downtown Denver. “We didn’t want them to get injured.”
Blado hung on there until his usual run, Clear Creek, was just too low. He relocated his school buses and bright blue rafts to the small Rocky Mountain town of Kremmling and now is trying to salvage the late season by persuading clients to drive the extra 115 km to float a wide stretch of the Upper Colorado.
“With Clear Creek being cut short, everybody pretty much takes a pay cut,” Blado said.
Heart-stopping rapids, smooth tributaries and deep holes on the Colorado, Arkansas and the Animas rivers, among others, draw outdoors enthusiasts from around the world. Last year, thanks to the winter’s heavy snows, outfitters served a record number of visitors. Conditions this year are far more in line with the pattern of recent decades. Since the late 1990s, three intense droughts have buffeted the state’s $193million (U.S.) rafting industry.
Summer 2018 followed a rough winter in which some areas received 30 per cent of what once was typical snowpack. A warm spring thawed drifts early, causing rivers to peak in May, weeks before the busy summer season. Severe to exceptional drought now covers two-thirds of Colorado.
“Not just in Colorado, but U.S. wide and globally, we’re seeing this disturbing warming trend that is amplifying over the last few decades going back to late 1960s,” said Brad Rippey, a meteorologist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. “It brings a lot more evaporation and makes semi-arid areas like Colorado prone to quick-hitting droughts.”
With its move to the Upper Colorado weeks ago, Liquid Descent Rafting is losing money. Given the longer trips to the boat launch sites, Blado can only do three trips a day here — compared with the 12 he might launch daily on Clear Creek.
He’s also refunding money to customers who were counting on a ride down churning white water . Some tourists, however, have chosen to float the calmer Colorado — along the way, jumping off cliffs, soaking in hot springs and possibly spotting a bald eagle or bighorn sheep.