The River is BLOWN OUT

Need I say much more?

The snow that melted off over the weekend has jacked the river way way up. John and I drove down river yesterday to check things out. The trip was fairly short-lived because the lower access road is so bad. As soon as we get that road graded in the fall, people tend to take a creative license with the speed limit.....20 MPH? How about 50? Excessive speed tears the road completely up.

The access road has waterfalls coming down on both sides of the river and a lot of rockfall due to the ice expansion and rocks breaking off from the sides of the canyon. The water was mega-high and brown. I think these pictures will tell the story...

You can see the state of the road here....

Waterfalls draining the side canyons' melting snow.

Water up in the trees and very brown.

Big rocks falling down from the walls along the access road.

The road is clearly in horrible condition.

We saw a few fly fishermen out on the tiny bits of water where they could actually step into the river without getting swept away. There was one fisherman out there who might have had a better chance of catching fish than others. I took a photo of him, as he was fishing one of my favorite spots.

Now that the snow melt is 3/4 of the way done, we expect the river to start dropping. The White River is, of course, an awful mess - super high and muddy. The entire Deschutes is also muddy - not just the waters below the White River. 

On a positive note, this is surely a great thing for the river to have water over 10,000 CFS. This can help wash out some of the weed beds that have formed thanks to the horrible water that PGE continues to release from the Pelton-Round Butte dam complex. 

We will keep you posted as the river improves.