Running Grand Canyon during the 1983 flood

Spillways release whitewater into the Colorado River downstream of Glen Canyon Dam in 1983. — An aerial shot of high-flow water release from Glen Canyon Dam in 1983.

Since the completion of the Glen Canyon dam in 1963, Grand Canyon has been a “tamed” river — for the most part. In 1983, twenty years after the dam opened, a combination of management decisions and high spring runoff resulted in Lake Powell filling to the brim. Dam releases, ordinarily on the magnitude of 10,000 cubic feet per second (cfs), increased to nearly 100,000 cfs. That summer, boaters still ran Grand Canyon.

Jeffe Aronson, an experienced Colorado River guide, has put together a couple videos showing what the Colorado River looked like during high-water conditions in 1983. They are nothing short of phenomenal. There’s more great stuff on his website and vimeo channel, and he also has a multi-part book you can get on an Amazon Kindle.

Colorado River at 100,000 cfs: Part 1

Credit: 100,000 cfs Colorado River Grand Canyon 1983 Part 1 of 2 from Jeffe Aronson on Vimeo.

Colorado River at 100,000 cfs: Part 2

Credit: 100,000 cfs Colorado River Grand Canyon 1983 Part 2 of 2 from Jeffe Aronson on Vimeo.

Comments

Greg Page says

24, February 2019 at 19:56

Very cool vid. Scariest rapid in the canyon by far. I paddled a surfboard on the left side of the hole on a trip with Bill Skinner in 1984 i think. I made it but that was probably the dumbest thing I’ve ever done.
- Mike Campbell says
  
  28, February 2019 at 09:34
  
  Greg, thanks for sharing the story! Reminds me of this video I saw a while back of a stand-up paddleboarder in Grand Canyon. Depending on what time of year you were on the river I’m thinking that you would have had higher water in ’84? (As an aside: I’ve found the colorful graphic on this page to be a neat representation of the Colorado River volume at Lees Ferry pre- and post-dam.)