Cody and Ryan Dudgeon are the owners and operators of Desert River Guides, the only rafting company in Farmington. Flows on the Animas River may not be record-breaking this year, but Dudgeon is still optimistic about good times on the water. By Ryan Simonovich. This story is sponsored by Sunray Park & Casino and M&R Plumbing.
Transcript
Cody and Ryan Dungeon are the owners and operators of Desert River Guides. The only rafting company in Farmington flows on the Animus River. May not be record breaking this year, but Cody says he’s still optimistic about good times On the water. You’re watching the Farmington Local News, brought to you by Sunray Parking Casino and m and r Plumbing. I’m your host, Ryan Simonovich.
This year, I’m thinking mid-May, probably around May 15th, we’ll start seeing higher flows. It’s got to warm up, up in Silverton, you know, and then by the time we get to June, the snow packs begun to melt off. The irrigation is in full force, and so we start losing some water and we have our ability to, you know, see that go down and move on to the San Juan.
The snow water equivalent is 33% of average in the animus and San Juan River basins. Snow water equivalent indicates how much water the snowpack contains. Dungeon says the San Juan River can be rafted year round because river flows are controlled by releases of water stored in Navajo Lake.
The Navajo Dam is set to regulate flows below the confluence here at a minimum flow, and it’s pretty much always potable for our section. The main reason they have those minimum flows is actually for a native species. It’s endangered. There’s two different fish. The Razorback sucker and the Humpback Chub are both native species of the lower San Juan River that have minimum water requirements.
Dungeon has boated the animus since the late nineties and says the conditions this year are reminiscent of the usual cycles he has seen on the river.
It’s been pretty, pretty similar to years past where it comes up on a few years and then drops a year or two. And we have a little bit of a drought cycle overall, I think because it is all natural snow pack, not damn fed. It just feels like it’s a, a pretty normal cycle that we’re in. Maybe a little drier than normal, but not something that I’m too worried about for this year.
The Farmington River Fest is coming up May 23rd through the 25th. The annual event is organized by the River Reach Foundation, a nonprofit focused on protection, promotion, and enhancement of Farmington’s Rivers, the weekend features, boating, live music, and other events at Animus and Berg Parks. Learn more about Desert River Guides and Riverfest at Farmington Local News. Thanks for watching the Local News Network. I’m Ryan Simonovich.
