This isn’t a stellar photo. Nor is it that recent. However it is taken from a truly unique perspective during an interesting period of time. I am looking upstream, standing on the rock that forms Maytag hole on the Yampa River. It is June 11th, 2012, and the river is flowing 1,000 cfs. Exactly one year ago, there was 26,000 cfs in this same place, making a feature that is hard to describe here. Many boats flipped in this very spot, but here I am, with my boat eddied out behind a rock that actually isn’t all that big, contemplating the energy and chaos that flowed over my head. Quite humbling really.
That is the beauty of the Yampa river. How in one season we see the highest water in 25 years, and the very next year the lowest. It is not disappointing (well maybe a little; that high water was incredible). That is the nature of a free flowing river, and there just was’t that much snow. Experiencing these two incredibly different seasons back to back made me truly appreciate the wildness of the Yampa River, and wild rivers everywhere.