Colo. mountain whitewater dwindling earlier, complicating downriver rafting
Whitewater rafters navigate near-record low flows on mountain rivers
Animas River water levels sank to less than a third of average for a second consecutive low-flow year, revealing sharp rocks, which complicate a plunge through whitewater rapids.
It is one of many rivers in mountainous western Colorado where paltry H2O flows — as snow shrinks and melts away earlier, linked to climate warming — are raising concerns about the long-term viability of commercial rafting. Rafting has become a recreation industry juggernaut bringing $70 million a year of direct expenditures and an estimated $180 million of broader economic impact.
Big water traditionally boosts rafting fortunes. Federal measurements this week showed flows lagging at less than half of average on Clear Creek, the Eagle River, the Colorado River, the Roaring Fork River, and the San Miguel River — water volumes in many cases less than 500 cubic feet per second — far less than historic high flows topping 5,000 cfs.
But tourists still flocked to the Animas in Durango, filling up four buses recently in the Albertson’s grocery parking lot, where Mountain Waters Rafting manager Heather Burke had just herded stragglers aboard with puffy safety flotation vests.
Her company and others endure by relying on crews adept at steering rubber rafts through rocks and maximizing splashes wherever possible. While a few riders have grumbled about low water, most still rave about their rides, Burke said. Along a heavily-trafficked stretch of the Animas south of Durango dubbed “The Smelter,” customers shrieked and smiled as currents carried them forth.
“The lowest water level we’ve been able to run is 95 cfs,” Burke said, referring to 2018, another relatively dry year.
How to navigate with less water has emerged as a challenge statewide with climate warming leading to high flows hitting earlier in spring and then petering out by July — just as customers converge. The Animas River stands out as particularly vulnerable because it is one of the West’s last relatively freeflowing rivers unblocked by dams. It twists down for 126 miles from the high San Juan Mountains above Silverton to the San Juan River in New Mexico, which later flows into Lake Powell along the Colorado River.
In contrast, the Arkansas
River, one of America’s most-rafted with as many as 200,000 “river user days” (compared with 37,000 on the Animas), recreation managers can control water levels. They operate under an agreement with federal authorities who run major water supply reservoirs upriver. They can call for releases of water into the river when necessary to artificially boost flows and sustain commercial rafting through summer.
Yet, even the Arkansas River flows faltered this week at around 742 cfs at Salida, federal measurements showed, below the average 1,219 cfs this time of year.
Natural flows after snow melts depend on rain, which boosts flows for a day or so, according to the graphs from U.S. Geological Survey gauges.
“The lowering of the water level is definitely affecting the rafting industry,” said Jack Llewellyn, director of the Durango Chamber of Commerce.
Snowpack on mountains serves the Durango economy as “rafting insurance,” Llewellyn said. “We are definitely seeing less. And we’re seeing more dirt and dust on snow. It melts quicker.”
He compared the river flow trend with another consequence of climate warming — increased risks of catastrophic wildfires when overgrown dry forests ignite. A fire set off by sparks from the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad train in 2018 burned 54,000 acres. Now, under a legal settlement with the U.S. Forest Service, the train must not run when conditions are too dry and hot.
“When that happens, we all know to shift and promote other activities,” such as Jeep rides in the mountains, Llewellyn said. “We’re trying to diversify the economy with other businesses.”
River rafting evolved over the past 60 years from being a navigation method favored among western adventurers to an organized commercial activity that last year drew more than 630,000 customers along 29 stretches of rivers flowing down from mountains in the state.
In Durango, the Animas also serves as a community hub for a population that has tripled from 8,000 in the 1980s to more than 22,000.
But the water flows over the years “have gotten to be less and less,” said Jack Bradeen, 63, who left in 1981 for Denver and returned in 2020, and was walking along the banks remembering the old days.
Rafting thrills depend on whitewater excitement, “and, otherwise, you’re dodging rocks,” he said, “and there’s no attraction.”
Eventually, lower water in the Animas will force rafting companies and visitors to move elsewhere, said Bob Wolff, who represented Durango on the Southwest Colorado Water Conservation Board for 11 years. One possibility: kayaking on the Lake Nighthorse reservoir southwest of Durango where Animas water cleaned in a treatment plant is pumped and stored.
“Pray for snow,” Wolff said. “And, you gotta have a Plan B.”
River rafting industry leaders remained optimistic and said low flows haven’t significantly hurt revenues these past two years.
“Rafting will continue,” said Dave Costlow, executive director of the Colorado River Outfitters Association. But Arkansas River companies, able to benefit from artificial boosts, may have an advantage because they can assure relatively lively rafting trips for most of the summer, he said. “From a business point of view, you want a predictable, steady flow.”
Some 50 or so rafting companies around Colorado for the most part are managing to adapt to the dry times, “and it is a pretty clean industry,” Costlow said. “It employs a lot of people in the summer. It has a positive economic impact. And what other thing can you do that compares to just being out in nature, floating down a river, having the time of your life?”
At Mountain Waters, rafting company operators find lower flows have led to a changing clientele. “We’re becoming more of a family kind of thing,” said Burke, 26, who has run tours for eight years. Fewer adventurers seeking thrills show up at her counter.
And she’s shifting the focus of some of the raft rides to emphasize that free-flowing aspect of the Animas.
“We can, like, explain to people how Mother Nature works. We can explain to them how our river is not controlled by a dam. We can explain that this is how rivers, our water sources, work.”
“Nature is as well adapted to our weakness as to our strength.” — Henry David Thoreau