JH Underground – news, sports and music blog from Jackson Hole, Wyoming news, sports and music blog from Jackson Hole, Wyoming

Because we never can get enough of these photos.

The Snake River is still running at nearly 7,000 cubic feet per second in the canyon above Alpine, about 2,000 cfs higher than average. I went down and ran the canyon last week for the first time since June, and found a surprisingly powerful river with many fun rapids.

The Snake has a good variety all summer long, with one set of rapids — Lunch Counter, Cottonwood — at their best in higher flows, and another set — Big Kahuna, Rope — more powerful at low water later in the season. The flow on the evening we ran the canyon was 8,500 cfs, a medium volume where both sets of rapids were kicking.

The Double Draw Rapid created by the mudslide is still one of the best, with bigger and better waves than I ever can recall at that spot. The emergency rock levee built by WyDOT downstream, however, is an eyesore.

At the Snake River Fund’s “Legends of the Snake” float trip and dinner last Friday, longtime outfitter Frank Ewing said flows in the canyon are staying higher than he has seen in more than 50 years of river running.

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Posted under Environment, Humor, Sports

Tags: landslides, river running, snake river, tourists

* Updated 6/30 with new details at bottom

One-time riverboat pilot Mark Twain wrote in Life on the Mississippi, “Your true pilot cares nothing about anything on earth but the river.”

Perhaps that helps explain why, in the midst of consecutive 12-hour days of working on the Snake, I found myself back on the river last weekend for a pair of whitewater runs. The allure of the peak flow is tough to resist, especially given the year’s record snow. Although Lunch Counter rapid tends to diminish once flows exceed 20,000 cubic feet per second, Cottonwood grows larger, and the eddies and boils are more powerful, swirling and surging until the canyon becomes a frothy, fizzy cauldron of chocolate-colored ice water.

Joining the lineup of big rapids this year is the mudslide-enhanced wave train near the bottom of S Turns, about 2 miles into the trip. I was a little skeptical of reports of a “new” rapid at the site, given that First Cut Bank, immediately below, always produced some waves. But on reaching the slide, we were greeted by a horizon line across the river, above which the spray of waves danced and licked.

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Posted under Environment, Sports

Tags: landslides, national forest, river running, snake river, wydot

Highway 26/89 reopened through the Snake River Canyon today, but landslide danger and maintenance challenges will persist in the coming weeks.

The Wyoming Department of Transportation is going to have to rebuild about a quarter-mile stretch of road through the Blue Trails area, which encompasses the Double Draw Slide. The slide poured mud, rocks and trees down the mountainside and had closed the highway since May 14.

The mudslide is only one of several worries at Blue Trails, named for dark-colored ledges of rock. The entire area is unstable, and west of the slide the highway has slumped, coupled with erosion on the riverbank below.

WyDOT engineers fear that if a slide doesn’t take out the road, the river might.

The agency has hired a contractor to place riprap at the river’s edge to stabilize the slope “before highway failure occurs,” according to a report. The Army Corps of Engineers and Bridger-Teton National Forest approved the emergency measure, which likely will affect a small rapid called First Cut Bank.

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Posted under Economy, Environment, Sports

Tags: landslides, national forest, river running, snake river, wydot

Update 5/29: Both lanes of the highway are open.

Despite significant road damage, the Wyoming Department of Transportation aims to reopen Highway 26/89 in the Snake River Canyon by late Friday, a WyDOT official said today in a phone interview.

The following is the latest press release from the agency about the Double Draw Slide, which has forced closure of the highway since May 14:

Most of the slide debris has been removed from US 26-89 in the Snake River canyon southwest of Jackson, but significant work remains to improve drainage and repair the highway before it can be reopened.

Completion of the debris removal revealed the full extent of a trench the slide debris and water cut across the highway. The trench measures as much as 50 feet wide and seven feet deep.

“That actually is a benefit to us,” WyDOT District Engineer John Eddins said. “The trench eroded across the road is in the same location we knew we were going to have to put in a large drainage pipe, and it’s wide enough that we could divert the water and debris flow to the east side of the trench and prepare a bed for the drainage pipe on the west side.”

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Posted under Economy, Environment

Tags: landslides, river running, snake river, wydot

Crews have begun working 24 hours a day to clear the mudslide blocking Highway 26/89 in the Snake River Canyon.

The Wyoming Department of Transportation has hired Yellow Iron Excavating of Wilson to remove debris. The slide, dubbed the Double Draw Slide, has blocked the highway since May 14.

“The slide did things that are very encouraging for us [Saturday],” said John Eddins, WyDOT district engineer. “Water flow in the middle of the slide has increased, which has moved a lot of debris down to the road.”

The agency had been waiting for as much of the unstable land mass as possible to reach the road or ooze below toward the Snake River. WyDOT officials also were encouraged that the top of the slide appears to be stabilizing, with no movement for two days, Eddins said.

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Posted under Economy, Environment, Sports, Wyoming

Tags: landslides, matt mead, national forest, river running, snake river, wydot