Well, yesterday was pretty quiet, weather-wise. Nice and sunny with fluffy, pretty clouds in a sharp blue sky. I made it down-valley to check on Disappointment Creek where it crosses under Disappointment Road on its way farther west, and I also watched happily as Spring Creek ran with muddy water in its broad arroyo a bit farther north.
This is a view of the still very swollen Disappointment Creek from what’s known locally as the Daddy Williams bridge (nope, I don’t know who Daddy Williams was). Looking upstream as the water flows toward me. Temple Butte is at just about center WAY back east.
And from the west side of the bridge as the water swirls and flows away toward the Dolores River.
Then farther north, past Road K20E to Spring Creek Basin – muddy and still puddled with rain water! – to check on Spring Creek. Oh, the anticipation! Would it still be running??
Spring Creek is much broader than Disappointment Creek at pretty close to the same elevation. You can see on the other side of the creek how high the water had risen along the creek bank and how much it had receded. By step-measurement, that was about 15 feet. Spring Creek Basin, the arroyos of which gather all this water into the lowest, main arroyo – Spring Creek – is visible in the distance to the east.
Spring Creek flowing out of Spring Creek Basin, through Spring Creek canyon, visible just right of center in the low background.
Looking nice and lovely and broad – and pretty shallow by this time – on the west side of this bridge, Spring Creek flows on west to join Disappointment Creek.
The rain should return today. Oh, and the total for the two full days between 8 a.m. Wednesday and 8 a.m. Friday: 2.74 amazing inches. Absolutely outstanding!
Water. Beautiful, gorgeous water. I love it, TJ!
Again, so grateful. 🙂 It was a long time coming, now coming all at once … but … grateful. 🙂
Love all the water! Looking good!
And not all of that is running off and away; a good bit of it is puddling and soaking into the soil. Yay!!!
Wonderful news ! We’re at historic levels for the Animas, it’s at least 8′ above normal below my house 🙂 Hope there are enough pockets filling up in the basin to last a while .
Wowza!! That’s amazing. Disappointment Creek might have been that deep in places (and that’s from nothing, a dry creek bed). 🙂 I very definitely know there are recharges to water sources all over the basin!
Beautiful photos!! Hwy 285 is closed from downtown Monte Vista. The Rio Grande is not far from there. WAAAAAAYYY too much fun at this point. I read some gory stories about the Four Corners region. I don’t remember anything like this in my time in Colorado, but to be fair, when I was a kid would I have paid attention? Stay dry!!!!
It’s going to be a while before we’re dry, and THAT is an awesome thing! 🙂 There’s been loads of flooding … Farmington, N.M., Durango – a friend sent me a video reel from there this morning. I’ve seen videos from Pagosa Springs and mind-blowing video from all around southern Utah with water cascading off the towering cliff walls. That kind of thing doesn’t happen often! I talked to our lead road guy this morning, and he said his wife read something about the area not having gotten rain like this in 130 years. Just wow. Stay *safe*!
The whole town of Manassas was evacuated last night. It’s on the west side of the valley and the Conejos river flooded big time. I read something similar about Del Norte — the last time this happened was 1911? Once every century is plenty…
Wow. I just heard something like that today. It’s crazy. Hope all those folks – and everyone affected by the destructive flooding, including animals – are safe.
People are stepping up all over the place to help — they built a temporary livestock sanctuary at the high school — not for cattle, obviously, but for smaller mammals and horses. This valley has its weirdness but the absence of kindness is absolutely NOT one of its weirdnesses. I learned that last year when I hurt myself.
That’s unbelievably amazing about the people – and I think you can say that all over, thankfully.
❤️
Wonderful water!
*Wonderful* is the word, yes. 🙂