Tubing down Clear Creek in Golden is unmistakably a different ride this year with the amount of water flowing through it tracking well below a typical July. But that hasn’t deterred people from floating down the waterway.
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“Even with the lower water levels, we’re seeing strong visitation,” said Jeremy Sweat, director of Parks and Recreation for the city of Golden. “As long as we have hot temperatures and dry weather, there’s going to be a lot of people coming down here.”
Along the Front Range, river-based activities like tubing and wave surfing are experiencing an earlier and shorter season due to an exceptionally dry winter that yielded record-low snowpack.
In Englewood, for example, the wave feature at River Run park is not currently surfable, though there was still enough water this week for locals to take a dip and cool off from the near triple-digit temperatures. River flows there depend on several factors, including drought conditions, water rights and releases from Chatfield Reservoir, which are managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in coordination with the Colorado Division of Water Resources, said Chris Harguth, spokesperson for the city. It’s unclear if more water will flow through during the rest of the summer.
Boulder Creek, another popular tubing destination, is also seeing flow-through subside earlier than normal. Typically, there’s a big spike in flow rate in May and June that can lead to dangerous conditions with extremely high water from spring runoff, said Anders Shenholm, manager of Crystal Ski Shop in Boulder, which rents tubes to floaters during the summer months. This year, though, that spike was “significantly lower” and tapered off quicker, he said.
“We have benefited from some rain that has kept us able to get people out on the creek,” Shenholm said. “People are still able to have fun in limited stretches, but typically water would be flowing better at the hottest part of the year.”
The city of Boulder doesn’t track official attendance numbers at the creek since access isn’t limited or gated, but observationally, there has been somewhat of a decrease in creek recreation this season, said spokesperson Kate Hernandez.
Beth Battilla, co-owner of Golden outfitter Adventure West, said lower flow has made for a more pleasurable experience on Clear Creek. The creek is narrower than normal, she said, but as long as tubers stay near the center, they shouldn’t be dragging across rocks or have to walk their tube to deeper waters.
“People love when the water is not too high in Golden and that is making for what I would call the perfect tubing season,” Battilla said, describing conditions as calmer and less intense than usual.
Still, the weather impacted operations this year in unexpected ways. Adventure West began renting tubes to local recreators in late May, a month early. While the company would normally rent to adults who are good swimmers until the water currents become less swift in late summer, Battilla said they’ve been renting to anyone aged 8 and up for weeks.
Additionally, the company usually rents tubes to folks in Littleton who want to float the South Platte River. Battilla and her husband, Mitch, decided not to open there at all this summer because the water is too low. With monsoon rains in the forecast, Battilla is hopeful Clear Creek will keep flowing for a majority of the rest of the season into September.
“It has been a wonderful surprise that we had enough water to float because we really weren’t sure,” she said.
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