Ben Horne Offline Upload & Sell: Off
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WakeTurbulence wrote:
Nice shot, and thanks for the Narrows update as well. I'll be looking to hike The Narrows in mid May and I have been wondering if it was going to be possible.
You can always check the water flow here:
http://waterdata.usgs.gov/usa/nwis/uv?site_no=09405500
Seeing how low it is now (60 cubic feet per sec), and how warm and dry it has been in the west, I don't see the water flow going up at all in the coming months. Just for reference, I hiked in Nov 2011 where water was chest high in areas, and the flow was around 100cf/s.
-Matt
In this situation, the depth of the water has very little to do with the flow. The reason it was chest deep in areas really has more to do with the lack of sand in the narrows during some years. Back in 2011, a lot of sand was washed out, so there were some deep areas of slow moving water. In recent years, sand has returned and now those same areas are only shin deep. There has been a lot of sand back in there for the past few years now.
I've been in the canyon with everything from maybe 50cf/s to around 110cf/s. During those times, the high water mark has remained about the same, but the current certainly kicks up at 110, and the water gets more a lot more murky. It wasn't fun at 110, and I can certainly see why they close the narrows when the flow is only a bit higher than that.
The last time I was there was in January, and there was still a lot of sand back in there. I believe the change occurs during flash flood season. The sand is either flushed out, or replenished -- depending on the sediment content of the water that creates the flood.
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