High Water Tuolumne River Update
Posted May 17, 2010 by MalinaStories of High Adventure on the North Fork of the American, Kaweah, and Tuolumne are flying fast and furious as our guides filter back to the Mother Ship from a weekend of spring rafting in California. I expect this weekend will be just as good even though the weather is cool, keeping the snowmelt at bay.
On the Tuolumne River for example, the water authorities are doing scheduled releases of big flows in anticipation of the snowmelt, so that means if you want a guaranteed high water trip, for once we can actually give you some pretty precise numbers. We’ve been told this weekend’s trips will have 10,000–11,000 CFS. And that, as our guests from this past weekend can tell you, is officially high. Flows like that transform the canyon–if you’ve rafted the T before expect a surprise. You won’t even recognize it–that is if you have time to tear your eyes off the massive hydraulics, swift water and swirling debris being swept downstream.
High water trips like these don’t come around very frequently so make it happen!