Living River
An exploration of the Colorado River by iLCP Senior Fellow Dave Showalter
I am a drop of cold, clear water, melting, falling from snowfields on the roof of the Rocky Mountains. Tumbling, I become a rivulet, swept forward by a stream, slowed by mountain meadow, racing in swift current, absorbing tributary arteries, my vital strength building. I am azure as the bluebird; I am cutthroat trout, condor, beaver, and sandhill crane. My soul is life carried downstream in current; all life, however connected to my force. I can be fury or impounded stillness, my intention unwavering. In six million years, I have carved the greatest, deepest canyon through stone, creating one of earth’s most magnificent monuments. I am life-giving, but not infinite. I am the Colorado River. Listen to my story.
Autumn cottonwood gallery forest lines the Upper Gila River, a tributary of the Colorado River, in gold while rusty sycamore mark Mogollon Creek, an ephemeral, flash flood prone tributary of the Gila. The presence of cottonwood forest and new cottonwood recruitment are signs of a river system with a natural flood regime, holding a wealth of wildlife biodiversity, the river floodplain wild and alive with birdsong. Gila River Lower Box, The Nature Conservancy Preserve, southwest New Mexico. ©Dave Showalter/ iLCP
Colorado River-Basin ©US Bureau of Reclamation
We dam and divert wherever water spills from the mountains, yet the Colorado must flow to reach the big downstream water users on Borderlands industrial farms and major diversions to southwestern cities. And where there is current, there is life, and hope in flow. The Colorado perseveres, for endangered fish in quiet water, carving two billion year old Grand Canyon Vishnu schist - soaring California condors overhead, rafters riding a fantasy of roiling rapids. The Colorado River powers our cities in the arid west, drives economies and recreation, feeds the nation and soothes our souls. Every drop and more is spoken for.
Two decades deep in a megadrought, we ask the river to give us ever more as human population growth explodes across the west. But all of the dams and diversions in the Colorado’s plumbing system can’t store and divert water we don’t have. Shrinking reservoirs and explosive wildfires are symptoms of steadily declining snowpack in the Rocky Mountains, and our future in a warming world. A dying river system with severe water shortages is our fate if we fail to act. The river is telling us to change course, conserve, to know her and where our water comes from.
The Colorado River is allocated by the antiquated 1922 Colorado River Compact, a document that pushed aside good science, favoring the most optimistic estimates of water in the Colorado River. Although no one at the time could foresee 40 million souls dependent on the Colorado, excessive optimism in the dam building era and possibly a myopic disregard of available flows justified the Hoover Dam and a chain of dams to control the river and build the west. In 2026, there will be renegotiated operating guidelines for the Colorado River system, a climate change reckoning with reduced snowpack and systemic water shortages. We can have a resilient watershed with a vital change in our relationship to water in the West. There are hopeful signs of reduced water use in the big cities, California and Arizona, yet we have far to go. We can all do better. We can embrace new ideas and technology, conserve and restore our western rivers for wildlife and recreation, and recalibrate our water consumption to the river we have.
(Above) Rafting through geologic time in Dinosaur National Monument is to witness a free-flowing western river and a remarkable conservation success story. The Yampa River was to be dammed at the confluence of the Green River in the late '50's when conservationists made a public plea for wilderness and Dinosaur, ultimately preventing the dam from being built and preserving free flow of the wild Yampa River. This conservation trip was with partner Audubon Rockies and OARS as part of the Western Rivers Action Network. Dinosaur National monument, CO. ©Dave Showalter/iLCP
(Above) An aerial view of the Glen Canyon Dam and the Colorado River impounded in Lake Powell reveals some of the historic river channel, the town of Page, developed with the construction of the dam, and a "bathtub ring" from receding water in the reservoir. The Upper Basin states of Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, and New Mexico send water downstream for storage in Lake Powell, allocated to the Lower Basin states: California, Arizona, and Nevada. Reduced annual snowpack has strained the Colorado River distribution system, with both Lake Powell and Lake Meade at historically low levels. Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, AZ ©Dave Showalter/iLCP
With publisher Braided River and our conservation partners, we are developing a multi-year conservation campaign for the health and sustainability of the Colorado River watershed. A beautiful coffee table style conservation photography book is foundation for our scalable outreach campaign. The Colorado needs a voice, our unified voice for restoration, healthy environmental flows and the next 100 years of the Colorado River watershed.
(Top Left) The Upper Gila River is New Mexico's last free-flowing river and a major tributary of the imperiled Colorado River. Gila River headwaters, New Mexico. (Top Middle) When hiking Buckskin Gulch and slot canyons of the southwest, one is ever-mindful that everything is shaped by water. These canyons have been carved over eons by flash flood events. Paria Canyon-Vermillion Cliffs Wilderness, AZ. (Top Right) A mule deer buck sports an impressive new rack in full velvet while paused from grazing on nutritious grasses in Bears Ears National Monument. UT. (Bottom Left) Grand Gulch, a labyrinth of canyons in the original Bears Ears National Monument holds beauty, mystery, and texture with a high concentration of Ancestral Puebloan dwellings, ancient art panels, and a cultural record of the Ancient Ones who preceded modern day Native American Tribes throughout the region. Bears Ears National Monument, Utah (Bottom Middle) Standing burned timber from the East Troublesome fire recalls the blazing 2020 autumn when Colorado's wildfire size record was broken three times and the East Troublesome Fire breached the Continental Divide. Our 20-year megadrought has dessicated soil and reduced seasonal snowpack - leading to an emergency in the Colorado River Watershed which supports 40 million people. Kawuneechee Valley in Rocky Mountain National Park, CO (Bottom Right) A yellow warbler sings sweetly from restored willow while defending his nesting territory along the Fraser River. The heavily diverted Fraser is the first tributary of the Colorado River in the headwaters region. The stream restoration is a collaboration of Trout Unlimited and Denver Water, with deeper defined river channels and restored willow to keep water temperatures cool for trout and other species. Fraser, Colorado ©Dave Showalter/iLCP
We must always have rivers. Our story is of the watershed of the Colorado, our relationship to rivers and water, wildlife richness, and her unrelenting will to carry life in current against a backdrop of overuse and ignored science. In writing this piece, I recall wild moments of a peregrine falcon on a Grand Canyon sandbar, raging rapids filling our dory boat in Cataract Canyon, a bobcat family raised in a tiny cave over the Green River, yellow warblers singing sweetly in restored willow on the Fraser River, the first tributary of the Colorado. I’m reminded of the phrase “Life Wants To Live”, taught to me by Australian photographer Juergen Freund. The Colorado River wants to live and needs our help - for people to care and engage in water conservation is to know the river and our place in the watershed. We are one community, 1,450 miles long, where we all live downstream.
(Top Left) A small flock of trumpeter swans fly over the Green River in Seedskadee National Wildlife Refuge, Wyoming. Our largest waterfowl species thrives in Seedskadee's open water through winter - roughly a 30 mile stretch of the river remains open due to the Fontenelle Dam just upstream. These magnificent birds nearly went extinct in the early 20th century, largely for the hat plume industry. Interestingly, collared Trumpeters have made the journey to the Grand Canyon and back, following much of the Colorado River's length. Seedskadee NWR, WY. (Top Middle) At sunset, a female bobcat pauses on a ridge-line above the Green River. In a week of tracking her, I was gifted with a few glimpses of her tiny kittens. Here, bobcats thrive while preying on small mammals in the sagebrush and a buffet of meadow voles and ducks along the Green River. June in Seedskadee National Wildlife Refuge, WY. (Top Right) A pair of Sandhill cranes trace autumn cottonwood and sycamore forest along the Upper Gila River floodplain after a morning of feeding in irrigated pasture. A small population of sandhill cranes spend winter in the Gila Valley, their unmistakable primal calls piercing cool morning air. (Bottom Left) Carrying a load of forbs, an American pika leaps to stock a hay pile larder to survive a Rocky Mountain winter. These diminutive rabbit cousins are susceptible to high temperatures and the elevator effect of climate change encroaching on their high altitude habitat. Colorado River Headwaters, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO (Bottom Middle) Colorful spawning Colorado River cutthroat trout swim in the headwaters of Avalanche Creek at the outlet of Avalanche Lake Maroon Bells - Snowmass Wilderness, Colorado. These cold, clear waters are refuge for native trout, just beneath towering peaks shedding snowpack. (Bottom Right) Our smallest North American grouse species, the White-tailed ptarmigan spend their entire lifecycle above timeline in the high alpine. To survive the harsh Rocky Mountain winter, ptarmigan use winter white camouflage, bury themselves in snow for insulation, and eat mostly alpine willow buds, captured in this image. Winter snowpack that nourishes willow and ptarmigan nourishes humans downstream. Fraser River Headwaters, Arapaho National Forest, CO ©Dave Showalter/ iLCP
(Left) Raft guide BJ Boyle gears up to guide our group through Lava Rapids, notorious for flipped rafts and misadventures. The Viking hat may be humurous, but Lava is serious business. Raft guides come from every background imaginable and all share the same story of being taken, and held by the river. Grand Canyon raft with Audubon Rockies and AZRA. (Middle) Cynthia Wilson proudly displays sprouting Bears Ears potatoes in her hogan, strengthened by juniper from the Bears Ears region in southeast Utah. Cynthia is director of the Traditional Foods Program for Utah Dine' Bikeyah and a founder of Women Of Bears Ears. Traditional Foods connect people of the five Bears Ears tribes, culture, and tradition with a "goal to increase native food access and usage to reaffirm connections with Mother Earth by the involvement of elders and reteaching the traditional food system to the younger generation for health and wellbeing". Cynthia and her family live on Navajo Dine’ ancestral lands in the Monument Valley Region on the Utah and Arizona border. (Right) Kirk Klancke, riverkeeper of the Fraser River in his treasured 1954 Chevy truck. Kirk is President of Trout Unlimited's Headwaters chapter and all things Fraser River in the Colorado River headwaters. A recent partnership with Denver Water made major improvements to deepen and define the Fraser River Channel, while shading the river with restored willow - cooler water temperatures benefit trout and other species. The Fraser is the first tributary of the Colorado River, and threatened by reduced snowpack and major diversions for Denver lawn irrigation. Colorado River Headwaters, Fraser, Colorado. ©Dave Showalter/ iLCP
Portrait of Dave Showalter ©Marla Ofstad
From Braided River Executive Director, Helen Cherullo: The Living River book release and impact campaign will launch in the spring of 2024, well ahead of the 2026 negotiation of operating guidelines for the Colorado River. With photographer and author Dave Showalter as a trusted guide and informed, passionate messenger, the book release will generate media, events, exhibits, and support partnerships with grassroots efforts. This compelling visually-driven story features unparalleled photography from Dave over extended, immersive time in the field documenting the watershed and life - including complex and illuminating human stories. Our goal is support for a healthy, resilient river, through water conservation, restoration, and protected flow. The campaign will engage water managers, decision makers, and regular folks in the watershed community toward viable, long-term solutions. Collectively, we aim to be the voice of the Colorado. We must always have rivers and life in flow, to sustain life, and save ourselves. The tenor and long-term commitment of our campaign is possible through book sales and philanthropy. Please get in touch if you would like to be a part of this effort.
(Left) From the summit of James Peak, the last sunset of winter lights the high peaks of the Front Range and Longs Peak in Rocky Mountain National Park. As spring unfolds, accumulated snowpack will flow on both sides of the Continental Divide; the east side (R) will flow to Denver and the Great Plains in the South Platte watershed, while snow on the west side (L) will flow to the Fraser River and Colorado River headwaters. Nearly all of the water in the Colorado River watershed comes a frozen stockpile of Rocky Mountain Snowpack. James Peak Wilderness, Colorado. (Middle) A bridge over I25 reveals the evening rush in downtown Denver. Denver receives roughly 60% of its water from the Colorado River - transmountain diversions through the Moffat and Adams Tunnels move water from the Colorado River side through the Rockies to the Front Range megapolis. People keep coming. Over the last decade, Colorado and the Denver area are burgeoning with new residents and continuous growth. (Right) If you eat a salad in North America during winter you are eating the Colorado River. All of the winter greens for the continent come from here, in the rich Yuma, Arizona floodplain. By the time the Colorado reaches Yuma and California's Imperial Valley industrial agricultural farms, the river is nearly wrung out. The Colorado dries up in the Mexican desert just south of the border from Yuma. Fully 80% of the Colorado's flow is allocated to the borderlands ag fields. Yuma, Arizona ©Dave Showalter/iLCP
An aerial perspective reveals the turquoise blue waters of the Little Colorado River, an important and sacred artery of the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon. The Little Colorado is sacred to the Navajo Dine', Zuni, and Hopi People, and ten tribes have deep connections to the confluence of the Little Colorado and Colorado Rivers. Developers have long coveted the site, most recently the "Escalade" development which would have run a tram to the confluence on the Colorado River. Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona LightHawk aerial support. ©Dave Showalter/ iLCP
