Cataract Canyon Without Lake Powell: A Monumental Legacy Of Dried Mud

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Lake Powell has drastically shriveled during 20 years of drought, allowing dozens of miles of the Colorado River to become a river again in world-famous Cataract Canyon. But why have many of its legendary rapids failed to return?

[@sthrnbll2u65]

I am so lucky to have so many memories on that lake! My daddy took us boating in so many caverns and caves. Camping on the sand stone, rainbow bridge. She was a beautiful lake. ❤️ And the fishing was amazing.

[@livenfree]

Wow sounds like an awesome child hood! U could probably write a book and inspire a movie! Did you get to see any of the 1000's of petroglyphs?

[@sthrnbll2u65]

Yes as a matter of fact we used to go off roading. And found many petroglyphs. And we found arrowheads and little sandstone pebbles. We used to frequent the lake. We lived in Page for a few years. It was very fascinating to live there. I am thinking my favorite memories were finding the the horned toads. And even as a kid I remember how beautiful the sky was, and all the stars at night.

[@jared6361]

@@sthrnbll2u65 yes I was able to see this lake many times. Used to go every summer. Saw awesome ruins like defiance house and 3 roof ruins. As well as La Gorce arch and rainbow. Wouldn't mind seeing this lake disappear and have a chance to explore the river.

[@sthrnbll2u65]

@@jared6361 I can only imagine the gems in the lake bed! I agree that would be another awesome exploration! Man that sounds like fun!

[@JamesMcCutcheon]

@@jared6361 the lake is a travesty just like so many rivers that were raped by human ignorance.

[@alicehallam8247]

"Whisky is for drinkin' and water is for fightin'." Motto of the American West. 🌵

[@Pidcack]

In all the comments I've read, people are only worried about one of two things. 1 how am I going to launch my boat or yeah! another arch or natural landscape revealed itself after however long. The real topic of discussion should be, where are we going to continually get enough water for all the people and agricultural needs in the southwest. The next time you go to the kitchen for a glass of water, be thankful Lake Mead, Lake Powell, Flaming Gorge and any other man made reservoirs along the Colorado and green rivers have existed these last 20 years. All of us would be more than eager to give up the boat launch or that landscape if your kitchen faucet ran dry.

[@T410ce]

It’s very cool how nature heals itself so easily. People aren’t nearly as consequential as we think... I believe God thinks it’s cute how we think we are in control of the earths future.

[@KarmicSlayer]

Yup.. I think he's like you wanna play God humans?.. Here solve this problem.. go ahead I'll wait...

[@williamesselman3102]

I love believers.

[@codyjones1098]

My god says she can beat up your god! Hits you with a water squirt.

[@RudyF6]

@@codyjones1098 Now that there was funny! Even if I don't believe you 🤣

[@bigduke2452]

Just keep shitting in our living room talking about how God will clean it up huh?

[@huskerhank6231]

Lake Powell commercialism is based on house boats, high power water craft and jet skiis...not some rafting way up stream. So as much I personally would like to see the lake not refilled that's not going to happen. Too many marinas catering to the power boat/house boat/jet ski crowd and they're not going to stand by and allow the lake to remain at low level. Add in the highly conservative (and at time anti environmental) political cultures of AZ & UT...dreams are nice but the reality is $$$. So naturally a drought will turn into a high snow pack year or years and the lake will refill if its allowed too. So enjoy your minirapids while you have a chance but don't get attached to them. Like the man said. priorities.

[@redrocklead]

You do know Lake Powell's Echo Bay and Overton Beach have been abandoned for years?

[@kenbaker4528]

Water is life. Population is not going to get smaller and we lack fresh water. Do the math. We need reservoirs not rapids.

[@SegoMan]

There is pro's and cons to both side of the debate, with a full pool Lake Powell looses 2x the water needs of Cali on a yearly basis due to evaporation. However it produces clean power and provides recreation for all above and below the dam.

[@ecolocalguy]

No we need to stop thinking we can have endless growth in a desert. The east gets plenty of rain. Seems a better landscape for human habitation

[@SegoMan]

@@ecolocalguy The Vax is gonna cure that..

[@bobzumwalt5606]

At least I was able to run the rapids with my dad back in the mid-1950s - we lived in Moab, ran the River all the way to Lee's Ferry, through Glen Canyon, a good ten years before that Damned Dam was built. Lake Powell was constructed for exactly that --> Siltation Basin. You see, Lake Mead was filling up with silt from the muddy Colorado River and that reduced Water supplies to California. Yup, politics at their worst; dam the river and its silt above the precious California water supply, Mead, and let the silt settle in Powell. No one thought about droughts back then, did they. Got exposed, didn't they. Nothing will be done about it. Oh, the Western Muddy Water Wars - LOL Heard the latest? They're planning to tap into the Platt River, pipe the water from there across Nebraska & Wyoming then dump the water into the Green River that flows into Lake Powel - LOL

[@FIGGY65]

Thank You Mr. Zumwalt for sharing your first hand experience about this. It seems that well intentioned and enthusiastic supporters of these types of causes would gain valuable information by learning from the folks like you, who’ve seen it from the beginning!

[@murcules33]

Glen Canyon was not an ideal place for storing water anyways. Too much seepage plus all that silt from the San Juan, Green rivers etc. But Mead couldn't function without Powell as you said. JW Powell was right about not opening up the SouthWest to settlement and farming in a rampant fashion.

[@howdoyouknow1218]

Interesting “solution “ to the problem. I was guessing they would pipe it over from the Columbia. Bureau keeps saying there is a plan in place to conserve. Wonder when that kicks in? Guess there’s still nothing to see here. Lol.

[@paulskillman7595]

Water is more precious than gold. Gold will not grow a tree, but water will. Too many people, not enough water, even though our planet is covered with water.

[@paulskillman7595]

I bet you type faster than you talk.

[@conanjam]

I have three suggestions for the drought one is to build multiple desalination plants along the coastline to bring in water on the West Coast the second is declare the the nation emergency water storage for the west and hire hundreds of thousands of truck driver tankers to transport water from the East Coast like Mississippi to the West Coast and third is build multiple Pipelines from the East to the West to transport water

[@ecolocalguy]

Or 4th, let the shithole cities like LA and Phoenix suffer the consequences of overgrowth and abuse of the limited water resource. A desert will not yield to human desires

[@whereswaldo5740]

Those guys are all bundled up. I thought it was hot there.

[@letsgoracing4849]

More "low" and higher energy flows is whats needed to entrain the silt and mud out and off of the more solid features.

[@maggotsaregoverningamerica4119]

I was up in Emigration canyon today and creek was bone dry.. nothing to see here folks LOL

[@lasvegasbreakingnews1752]

rapids? strange what people take on as a hopeless crusade.

[@ericmuschlitz7619]

They are only trying to provide for their profiteering and exploitation.

[@lasvegasbreakingnews1752]

@@ericmuschlitz7619 Agreed.

[@LTV_inc]

This was always meant to be a river. Eventually the silt will fill both lakes and the river will find another course. I wonder how many of my ancestors artifacts were flooded then buried in this canyon? 🙁

[@cmahar3]

Millions of people downstream count on the water stored in Lake Powell. We are thankful the lake and the dam exist, b/c otherwise we wouldn't be able to live in this hot climate.

[@ecolocalguy]

Heres a thought...maybe building mega cities in a desert is not a good idea? We can defy nature only so long.

[@cmahar3]

@@ecolocalguy Really? For how long?

[@ericharmon7163]

Hey, welcome to hydrodynamics 1001! Why are they surprised? Oh, and this is also what happens when giant desert cities suck limited water supplies dry.

[@weary1]

Too bad someone like Edward Abbey didn’t try to tell us this would happen before the dam was built. 🙄

[@SegoMan]

Actually JWP testified to congress that the west will never support a large population..

[@weary1]

And back then they didn’t heed his advice, either.

[@SegoMan]

@@weary1 His Journey started in Meeker Co (thinking that was the headwaters) then he floated to the confluence of the White / Green rivers and said Ruh Row.

[@weary1]

It’s difficult to imagine how he and (most of) his crew made that journey. Not to mention all the important knowledge gained about the area. Quite a man.

[@SegoMan]

@@weary1 I've floated the Grand twice, first trip was in 89 in a 14' raft. I would tell myself on several occasions stop your sniveling if a one armed man can do this in a wooden boat so can you! lol Another factoid from his journey is that he was the only one to have a life jacket on (made from wooden sticks..) If you ever make it to Green River Ut stop and check out the JWP Museum Then go over to Rays Tavern for for dinner, there is pics of Cataract Canyon at it's glory!! White Water!!

[@harveypost7799]

As water drops ,dam like Aswan silting up.

[@harveypost7799]

Sahara desert once very lush,forest..

[@brentmeg922]

Fascinating….great report!

[@at6686]

The “river” will wash the mud into Powell and just plug it up that much sooner. The reservoir will never fill again. What a spectacular waste and miscalculation.

[@morganeast3403]

The lake and dam are working as planned will fill again.sorry ashole

[@at6686]

@@morganeast3403 Wishful thinking by a clueless idiot. Didn’t work when they built the thing, won’t work now. In a few years it will be too low to make power.

[@geckocanyon]

Maybe we should have never invented the wheel and sat in our cave and ate jerky. Did you ever think that if man had stayed in his cave and never ventured out were we would be? Fast forward to today. If we had no water nobody would have moved here. Sure the Indians lived here but they didn’t need internet, cars, drug stores, zip lines. You get it? We are all hypocrites saying we don’t need dams or electricity or water. Yes you do! And solar is not going to do everything for us for all you green people out there. We all have needs, and as long as we keep advancing as humans we will develop and spread further out. We will all be mixed ethnicity. No more black, white, yellow, skin. Right now our lives are just a split second in Earth time. Live your life and enjoy and quit worrying about mud in the bottom of lake Powell. In my lifetime I have seen a lot of changes as we all have. Some good and some bad. Life’s to short to sit around and complain. Humans try to do the best we can to survive.

[@at6686]

@@geckocanyon We are very clever creatures no doubt. But we have made changes in systems that we don’t understand. It’s like letting 3 yos play with matches. The arrogance of our civilization knows no bounds. Unfortunately the planet is going to impose limits on us no matter how smart we think we are. You are forgetting that every single thing we need and use, every breath, bite of food or toy comes from nature in the end. Nature is being relentlessly dismantled to feed our short sighted stupidity. Had we kept our population close to anything sustainable we had a chance. Instead we have bred like rats. Our uninformed meddling has altered the planet beyond its ability to compensate and now we get to pay. No amount of rage will make it rain or get cooler as the co2 shoots past 419 ppm.

[@mbrown1519]

And you probably think you're a Tesla runs on clean energy

[@brianbechtol7329]

If Edward Abbey were alive to see this now....

[@SegoMan]

I would prefer that JWP came back and say "I told You So!"

[@flintrichards945]

If the water can ever come back and they can refill Lake Powell to capacity they have to do it because we need water water is the main resource needed in the west not Rapids rapids are fine and fun and great but you can’t put them ahead of water.

[@brucebussert4983]

Similar thing as you enter Lake Mead

[@roseannecarratkinson4271]

Look at our Great Salt Lake. It isn't there anymore. We just don't get our winters or our spring rain anymore.

[@mr.elastomeric1787]

SugarcoatingBullshit.???? or Dumbing us down.

[@jjames2162]

Ohhh I don’t think they have to worry about water coming back and building more dams …

[@dtobler4638]

Isn’t dried mud just dirt?..... Bad title

[@babydriver8134]

The government should be DREDGING, while the dredging is good. Megatons of topsoil down there.

[@ericmuschlitz7619]

The government needs to stop trying to manipulate nature, that's the problem.

[@MyEarthEcoNut]

Ed Abbey was right...

[@e4t662]

I feel like this entire video is a metaphor.

[@Mrbfgray]

Shocker--damns alter the landscape, WHO KNEW!?

[@jrdeckard3317]

The water level figures for Lake Powell are beginning to look suspect. Hard to believe that the lake has come up almost 3 feet since May 25th.

[@gumwap1]

Why’s that? In an average runoff year, it would have come up 10-15 feet already. This is what a drought looks like. This year is projected to be less than 8’ of rise. This is worse than it sounds in terms of water volume because the relationship between reservoir elevation and water volume is not linear. Water level changes are much more profound for a given volume at low elevation than they are at high elevation. The lower the lake gets, the faster it drops for the same amount of water.

[@redrocklead]

@@gumwap1 Drove Loveland pass. April 1 and May 31. There was little snow (water). Drove the Virgin River Gorge. The Rio Virgin is green with stagnant water. Mojave was 120° and looking dead.

[@whereswaldo5740]

Water cutting through soft sediments. Almost like the Grand Canyon could have been made in weeks after the flood when Grand Lake let loose. Hunh? Who would have thought.

[@user-gw1dr7rt9b]

Beginning of the end.

[@martinvisokey8958]

All the rivers and streams at some point find their way to the ocean, but the ocean never fills, Stop trying to understand something that you will never understand.. you can cut open a apple and count the number of seeds inside the Apple but you can never count the apples that are in One seed

[@KK51500]

Look away!! Say less!! Panic panic panic

[@marielaretivesiccard7162]

Read dark emu David Pascoe.... Along with Peter Andrews beyond the brink and back from the brink ....

[@samallardyce2522]

rapids will end world poverty

[@marielaretivesiccard7162]

Silt build up

[@johngillon6969]

how exciting eh! or sad waste of time. you decide.

[@OneSon744]

Thank those jets spraying the Earth!

[@JamesMcCutcheon]

Takedown that dam Mr. Gorbachov

[@morganeast3403]

That's stupid

[@Domm_Diggity]

Ta ta ta ta ta ta TODAY Jr. 😅

[@josephsmellyunderwearsmith2030]

Utah = corona lake waters

[@pastorjerrykliner3162]

The Glen Canyon dam was a huge disaster. If we (humans) were smart, we would take advantage of the low-lake levels to take that abomination out and restore the river to what it was meant to be.

[@efragar2003]

i will said stop worries about rapid waters and start to keeping more dams for the future,take a photo but reality is in the west populations is growing to much,and unless stupid investment people stop to find a solution for the water drought is no other solution to store water in dams,,they should be building a water pipeline from the mississippi out of louisiana or mississippi delta and pumps water to the west (problem solved)

[@michaelfaklis8169]

Regional population has exploded. Agri-business is growing water intensive crops. Residents are planting water hungry non-indigenous gardens. The region is affected by climate change and ongoing drought. Need I even mention Las Vegas, planted in the desert? Reservoirs are falling to critically low levels, leaving little water for human consumption, much less electrical generation. Should we celebrate that a few white-water enthusiasts are celebrating 19th century river rapids? There were plenty of white-water locations in the region even when our reservoirs were full. We cannot go back to 19th century river conditions without a mass die-off of human life. I suppose the survivors might be able to live on restoring our rivers to 19th century conditions. Maybe life could de-evolve to go back to the oceans. Yes, we need to be respect nature and protect wilderness, but can we find a way to do so without human genocide?

[@handtohandcombat3535]

If we're going to go that far we should talk about LA and it being a desert.

[@warrenolmsted]

You’re missing the point, which is that we don’t have a choice. The rain and snowfall annual averages which allowed Lake Powell and Lake Mead to be filled 50 and 100 years ago are gone and they’re not coming back.

[@handtohandcombat3535]

@@warrenolmsted How different is the snow fall in 08 compared to then?

[@SegoMan]

@@warrenolmsted Perhaps they should stop manipulating the weather???

[@ecolocalguy]

Ask the anasazi about climate change. Well you can't, they were genocided by the last big drought. And it wasn't caused by carbon emissions back then. Must be a cycle

[@williamesselman3102]

Go fishing?

[@gladegoodrich2297]

RIVER RUNNER GUIDE. JUST A POLITE WAY OF SAYING NEVER HAD A REAL JOB!

[@paulskillman7595]

What a terrible name to call anything "Cataract Dam" Nobody likes cataracts.

[@davec9244]

they took paradise and put up a parking lot don't

[@garygrinkevich6971]

The writers on this network need to lay off the copious alliteration, there are other literary devices jesus jumping Jehosaphat who talks like this.

[@moefuggerr2970]

Report that spam/.

[@nakosimpson7459]

Gv