Returned Rapids

Every reservoir has a planned level of annual fluctuation. In the early 1990s, the fluctuating reservoir level was around Imperial Canyon and it's long rapid. Sometimes the rapid, with its large waves, would be a good end to a run through Cataract. In other years the rapid would be erased by the quieting impoundment of Lake Powell.

Then, in the early 2000s, it all changed…

Imperial Canyon, Rapid #27, came and went throughout the 1990s based on the reservoir’s downstream water delivery requirements.

The drought of 2002-2003 changed all of that. As the river rounded the corner below Cranberry point, what many thought to be forever submerged began to show change.

Since the drought of 2002-3, the river’s continued carving has begun to reveal historic features through river miles 200 - 199 and onward downstream…