• Photo of the mouth of the Dirty Devil in 1939. Charles Butler Hunt, USGS.
• Aerial Photo of the mouth of the Dirty Devil in 1962. Bud Rusho, USBR.
• Photo at mouth of Dirty Devil in 1921. Emery Kolb.
• Dirty Devil confluence from airplane; downstream view. Unknown photographer.

• Official web site

Dirty Devil River Primitive Boat Ramp (sometimes called North Wash) and near (opposite shore) the defunct Hite Marina facility (defunct as of 2003).

• August, 2021 - Drawing of Dirty Devil Boat Ramp.
• Note: The park service does not give reports on conditions at the Dirty Devil River Primitive Boat Ramp.
• Note: the creep of the lateral slumping toward the river is increasing; we think this boat ramp is compromised and will cause serious injuries.
• As of June 19, 2022 the upstream ramp slumped into the river, leaving a 10-foot escarpment of reservoir sediment. The ramp has since been modified a bit downstream, which has some bedrock features for stability. Video. mov.
• As of March 2023, the Colorado River has removed about 40 feet of sediment since 2019 and this rate of removal continues. We expect the ramp to be totally unusable by the summer of 2023, and it is also possible that this sediment removal may encounter bedrock features and create either a bedrock rapid or a bedrock waterfall.

Citizen Monitoring @ Dirty Devil Take-out

• July 5, 2019 - Group photo at Dirty Devil Take-out: The Powell 150th river trip; USGS & Univ. of Wyo. Note: Approximately 40 feet of sediment has been excavated by the Colorado River since this photo was captured.
• June 31, 2022 - Dirty Devil Take-out using roller tubes. Photos by J. Weisheit
• June 31, 2022 - Part One: Dirty Devil Take-out using roller tubes. Movie by J. Weisheit.
• June 31, 2022 - Part Two: Dirty Devil Take-out using roller tubes. Movie by J. Weisheit.
• Photos: October 6, 2022. John Weisheit.
• Movie: October 6, 2022. John Weisheit.

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RESERVOIR CONDITIONS NEAR 3520 FEET: Dam and facilities
View or download photo portfolios (these pdf photo compilations are large files)
Courtesy of John Weisheit

March of 2022

• March 11, 2022 - Glen Canyon Dam and reservoir at 3525 feet
• March 9 & 10, 2022 - Area near Hite Marina
• March 10, 2022 - Area near Bullfrog Marina
• March 11, 2022 - Area near Wahweap Marina
• March 11, 2022 - Area near State Line Launch Ramp
• March 11, 2022 - sunken garbage and boat carcass near Stateline Marina
• March 11, 2022 - Area near Antelope Point Marina

March of 2023

• March 6, 2023 - Dirty Devil take-out. Photo pdf portfolio.

• March 6, 2023 - Dirty Devil take-out. mov.
• Note: the actual drop from ramp edge to river is seven feet.

• March 6, 2023 - Preferred route for boats at Dirty Devil take-out. mov.
• Note: this route avoids the steep drop off.

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• Current conditions as of October 2022 between Dirty Devil Take-out and Farley Canyon: There is a knick point one mile above Farley Canyon, and eroding headwardly (the opposite direction of river flow) at a rate of about 25 feet per day. The river incision into the mud and detritus layers of Powell Reservoir creates islands that dewater and then eventually slump and/or slide into the deepening incision.
• The magnitude of these slump features can resemble an Arctic glacier crumbling into the ocean, or consist of large sections (typically 25 feet by 100 feet) that launch themselves sideways into the Colorado River at random moments (can be dangerous).
• When the gains of entrained sediment reach the still waters of Reservoir Powell, the load drops into the deep water column of the reservoir, and presently located at The Horn, a couple miles above Good Hope Bay. This “delta” feature advances into the reservoir at an average annual rate of about 100 feet per day; especially during a vigourous monsoon season, as occured in the summer/fall of 2022.

• Movie 01: Navigating dewatered mud island rapids. mov.
• Movie 02: Cascading, dewatered mud flows. mov.
• Movie 03: Navigating islands, dewatered slump features & dunes. mov.

Matching photos from the Nielsen Collection near Farley, White and Trachyte canyons

• Note: Locating the exact camera stations was very difficult and sometimes unsafe. The perched sediment here is about 200 feet thick and choked with massive thickets of weeds. The sediment features include deep mud cracks, subsidence, slump fractures and slope failures.
• Moki Fort at White Canyon View; October 2022. jpg.
• Airstrip above Farley Canyon; Upstream View; October 2022. jpg.
• Airstrip above Farley Canyon; Downstream View; October 2022. jpg.
• Airplane parked at airstrip; October 2022. jpg.

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NEWS: RESERVOIR FACILITIES AT GLEN CANYON NATIONAL RECREATION AREA (GCNRA)

• January 27, 2022 - Glen Canyon NRA Updates Plans For Lake Facilities. Lake Powell Chronicle.
• February 6, 2022 - Gregory Natural Bridge resurfaces as long-term drought hammers Lake Powell. Sean Golightly for Arizona Daily Star.
• March 23, 2022 - Lake Powell's Losing Streak: Will the Odds Ever Change? John Hollenhorst for KSL.
• March 25, 2022 - Colorado hits a "Hard Pause" on water demand management as it waits for the other states. Chris Outcalt for The Colorado Sun.

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• Google Maps: Lake Powell
• Sentinel Hub: Lake Powell
• 01 Glen Canyon National Recreation Area
• 02 GCNRA
• 03 GCNRA Foundation and Map
• Reservoir elevation fluctuations since 1988. Center for Colorado River Studies; USU @ Logan.
• 2012 - Geologic Map of the Hite Crossing, Dirty Devil River Area; Glen Canyon NRA and Garfield and San Juan Counties. UGS.

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A HISTORY: Citizen and professional science related to significant low reservoir levels at Glen Canyon National Recreation Area (Lake Powell).

Glen Canyon National Recreation Area (GCNRA) includes:

(1) The lower half of Cataract Canyon below Big Drop Two, which is also the end of Canyonlands National Park (CANY).
(2) All of Narrow Canyon beginning at the end of Mille Crag Bend, or when you can see the Henry Mountains.
(3) All of Glen Canyon beginning at the mouth of the Dirty Devil River and ending at the mouth of the Paria River near Lee's Ferry, Arizona.
(4) The NRA was established by Congress in 1972.

• 1968 - Glen Canyon National Recreation Area Hearings
• 1970 - Canyonlands NP & Glen Canyon NRA Hearings
• 1972 - National Recreation Area Hearings
• 1972 - Public Law 92-593
• 2005 - Strategic Plan for NRA and Rainbow Bridge NM.
• 2023 - Foundation Document (Superintenedent's Compendium).

The Filling Criteria for Glen Canyon Reservoir (Lake Powell)

• July, 1962 - Federal Register Notice. Stewart Udall, Secretary of Interior.

Publications during the filling criteria for Lake Powell

• 1963 - The outlook for boating and other recreation in GCNRA. Anonymous.
• 1967 - Lake Powell, Waterway to Desert Wonders. National Geographic.
• Circa 1972 - Meet Lake Powell. NPS.

Geographic Details:

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RESERVOIR MANAGEMENT

After observing 60-years of reservoir management at Lake Powell, we present the following contradictions that have emerged:

(1) The original name was Glen Canyon Reservoir and the filling criteria began in March of 1963.  The name was formally changed to Lake Powell when Lady Bird Johnson dedicated the facility for the people of the 50 United States in 1966. It required 17-years to finally fill Lake Powell, which occurred in Year 1980. The decades of the 1980s and 1990s were significantly wetter than previous decades, and interrupted by a four-year dry cycle between 1989 and 1992. By 1992 the reservoir capacity had dropped to 50%. This condition occurred again in 2002 and, by March of 2005, the capacity dropped to 35%, which then launched the development of an Environmental Impact Statement called "Shortage Criteria" and finalized as 2007 Interim Guidleines.

(2) A brim full reservoir, as occurred from 1983 to 1988 and from 1995 to 1998, essentially means there was no flood control capacity in the Colorado River Basin, See: Vandivere et al., 1984 & Floods Reveal Water Policy Chaos; HCN, 1983. This is a variance to the principles set forth in the Boulder Canyon Project Act of 1928 (BCPA), which mandated flood control as the primary management priority. It must be understood that if something goes wrong with the structural integrity of Glen Canyon Dam, and it becomes necessary to vacate the reservoir of water as quickly as possible to avoid a catastrophe, that it would take about 12 to 16 months to complete the evacuation process. This means that dam safety is dependent upon perfect performance at all times and under all conditions. Yet, no human endeavor can possibly control the extremes of nature.

Glen Canyon Dam will fail someday and, potentially, 27 million acre-feet of water, sediment and rotting organic materials will burst through Grand Canyon and into Lake Mead and then over the crest of Hoover Dam. The majority of the discharge, beginning with emergency spillway releases at Hoover Dam, will flow into the structural depression known as the Salton Through, rather than the Gulf of California (or both). If dam failure at Glen Canyon Dam occurs, the discharge of the outburst flood will overtop Hoover Dam with a column of water that would be, 70-feet thick (see Lantham, 1998). Hoover Dam will either fail too, or suffer damages so severe that that it will become completely inoperable. Incidentally, the water storage capacity of the Salton Trough is 405 million acre-feet (Lake Mead times 14). The overflow point is in Mexico south of Mexicali. The elevation there is 30 feet above sea level.

This clearly indicates that Reclamation does not manage Lake Powell for flood control and dam safety. Rather, the priority operating criteria for Lake Powell is to maximize water storage and hydropower production, which are the secondary and tertiary management priorities of the BCPA. This is why the snowmelt of 1983 became an emergency situation at Glen Canyon Dam and caused by a reluctance to vacate the reservoir to safely accommodate inflows of 111,500 cfs (Burgi, 1984) and a 4-month snow melt volume of 15 million acre-feet. It is now reasonable to conclude that, had the volume been a five-month snow melt of 30 million acre-feet, as in 1884, Glen Canyon Dam would have been breached by the Colorado River (Swain, 2002).

(3) One of the incidental purposes of Lake Powell is to settle and store entrained sediment and organic detritus. When Lake Powell elevations are low the stored sediment and organic detritus is mobilized by the Colorado River and carried further downstream toward Glen Canyon Dam (Pratson, 2008); this shortens the lifespan of this dam. This includes the stored sediment in the 125 side canyons, many of which are in close proximity of Glen Canyon Dam, such a Wahweap and Antelope canyons. When the sediment load in Lake Powell reaches 50%, the priority objectives of flood control and water storage are compromised (USGS, 1960). Or, when sediment reaches the elevation of the outlet tubes on the front face of Glen Canyon Dam, a dredging program must begin (Schultz, 1961). A reservoir losing storage capacity to sediment fill is the same as depleting the capacity of an aquifer to zero. You end up with nothing.

(4) Erosion by a flowing Colorado River over exposed reservoir sediment mobilizes decaying organic matter and this becomes a water quality issue, especially for the aquatic species of the reservoir, and the aquatic species below Glen Canyon Dam. This would also be true for Hoover Dam and Lake Mead. The decay process of the organics decreases oxygen levels in the water column of the reservoir, and the odors of hydrogen sulfide emissions are most unpleasant, and the emissions of raw methane gas (odorless) from Lakes Powell and Mead does load the atmosphere with a significant greenhouse gas contribution (Dohrenwend, see presentations below). Reservoir-based hydropower is not clean, it is not safe, and it is not sustainable. See: Hydropower is likely to have no future on the Colorado. OTC.

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• To Visit Part Two - CLICK HERE
• To visit Part Three - CLICK HERE