Lake Powell Water Release Glen Canyon Dam High Flow Experiment 2023 

Thanks for taking and sharing this video…I’m a frequent fly fisher and camper up there every chance I get. your before / after shots are especially awesome!

Thanks for the video, great to see below the dam and before/after footage.

I'm 81 and I wish I could pass water like that again.

THis is my favorite canyon run in Microsoft Flight Simulator. I jump in a P-51, fly low over the dam, dive under the bridge and fly the canyon at full throttle and turn and burn down to lake mead.

Former river guide here. Ought to be a hell of a ride downstream,wondering how they’re handling it. Back in the day we were all about the release schedule. Sometimes left high n dry,sometimes the opposite. Sedimentation was all on down canyon beaches. I’m remembering high cfs trips-Crystal,Horn Cr.,Granite,etc..old Belknap guide map,mile by mile,history,photos,i.e. National Canyon,two lovely ladies holding spatulas with the quote ‘Girls grill golden brown pork chops where Powell party spread meager rations’ ..Ha !! always remembered that ..poor Colorado R.,though,and the freaking dams(Abbey was right) ..see what happens though I doubt it will ever recover 😉

Good job bud. Top quality. Thanks from all of us.

Good job. Thanks for not ruining it with music

Absolutely beautiful photography

Some of the best footage of the Glen Canyon Dam ever taken. I'm not much of a fan of the Glen for a multitude of reasons but it is truly one of the most stunning concrete dams ever erected. Hoover should have been the first and last ever built on the Colorado. Thanks for the great work on this video.

Awesome! I live on the Isle of Skye in Scotland and we have lots of hydro-electric dams in the Highlands. We have plenty of rain and we often bitch about how wet the weather is. When you see how low Lake Mead was a few months ago it definitely makes me grateful for where I am. So cool to see the water flow down into the creeks and the immediate benefits. I enjoyed this video very much, thanks for sharing 👍🏻

This is some great footage. Just keep making more videos like You have been.

Good job capturing the event. Thank you buddy.

Wonderfully done video. Nice to watch the release from the tubes in the dam, and not feel rushed.

I remember as a kid watching an episode of ROUTE 66, where Tod and Buz worked at the construction site of the Glen Canyon Dam. Great views of the construction site(s) both above and below ground. And thanx for the before and after shots. Very nice to see

VERY Nice.....the river and its ecosystem is smiling.

great footage

Wow. What a powerful flow. We visited Glen Canyon Dam in February 2023. Nice to be there at the right time to capture this event.

This video was done very nicely, thank you I enjoyed every minute.

Thank for posting. Great capture of the sceneries down the canyon.

Wish Lake Powell could hold on to a little bit more of that water.

The massive water and scenery is amazing. Thanks.

Great video. So glad you went down to Lee's Ferry and the Vermilion Cliffs, love that area.

Awesome video the river looks absolutely beautiful. Thanks for the great video.

Excellent video. Wow.... the power of water!

Some stunning scenery and great shots Thanks for the video.

Thank-you, this was awesome.

At 7:38 you can see the footings for the concrete plant which, from June 1960 to September 1963, churned out up to 1,450 tons of the grey stuff each hour. It operated 24/7 for those 39 months eventually producing 5,370,000 cubic yards of concrete to create the dam.

This is good to see, very good. I was there first part of February and the water level was so low the sand bar below the spill way was above water and at least 20-30 feet in diameter. I'll be driving thru again in a couple of weeks and can't wait to visit it again!

Thanks for sharing.

Impressive videography.

WOW Thank you for the before and after pictures. It is thrilling to see and hear the river!! I hope with this that governments and politician won't go back to sleep. We are not out of a crisis unless we had another 3 winters similar to this year. We can become complacent and waste water because we have it! Really appreciate your channel!

Great video. A tribute to mans ingenuity and to the awe inspiring beauty and power of nature.

What awesome pictures.Thanks for sharing.

Great video! Thanks for posting it

i went to Lake Powell when i was a kid. My parents rented a house boat and we took a few day trips way up north to bullfrog and did a lot of inner tubing and water skiing...ahhh memories

I was down there in 2018 when the tubes just started and got to stand on the deck where those workers are. It's pretty spectacular to see right from that perspective.

Wow!! And so happy for our Lake Mead getting a bit of help.

Thanks for making and posting the awesome video!

Thank you this was amazing. I’m Australian so I know what water shortage is. Thank you again great photography

How nice to see, been dry so long this is a happy site.

Amazing video. So glad I found your channel!

Stunning photography and intersting information. Appreciate you sharing this, thank you!

Great editing Iove the views and the Before and Afters! Thank you

I swear its the background scenery from all the road runner cartoons!

Beautifully videographed 👌🏿 👍🏼 ❤️

Excellent video. Really informative and amazing to watch. Thank you.

TOP VIDEO 👍

You must go to Pearce Ferry Rapid!!!!!! Great video.

Seems a little silly to be letting so much water out when Powell has been at record low water levels...

thank you for the update...hope for more update soon

That was an awesome video of Glen Canyon. That is a lot of water. They’re letting out hopefully things will get straightened out.

Thank you for this and thank you for the added information... We have a group of friends and neighbors from Flagstaff going down the river on a 6 day powered trip, 188 miles, starting May 19th. Lived here all my life and it's my first trip at 51 years old - although I've been to Havasupai about 35 times. I'm guessing it'll be a pretty awesome time of the year and a great experience with new beaches. If they're releasing at this time again perhaps we'll have such a different experience with new beaches?

Really cool bridge to walk on,

3:52 Hollow jet valves! Gotta love 'em!

Thanks ✌️

Amazing! Great video!

Wow great shot and info. Hope those downstream were aware.

Thank you for this footage!

Hey! Great Great video!

Look at that water pressure!

I appreciate ecology environmental conservancy

Hopefully there will be many great rafting trips this season.

Would make a terrific ad for a prostate drug like Flomax!

Great video. Clearly it was an event more than an experiment. It looks like a healthily river at last. Hope we will see more flow over the summer!

Great footage!👍 Thanks for sharing, new subscriber hope to see more coverage of the levels at Powell & GCD this year!

That’s the sound of Lake Powell draining. 39,500 cubic feet per second or 17,729,970 gallons per minute out of the four jet tubes and eight turbines.

This was me at 19 years old. Things are different now.

Very interesting and informative video, thanks for taking the time.

Awesome Video

The before and after was so important to document, thanks for the videos as I hope people watch them to really understand how this particular water system works. So many misconceptions out there .

very good

What an amazing vid. Thanks for doing this.

This flow is going to Lake Mead it’s not being wasted.

Great video

Did the officials curtail river trips during the release? In 1976 I went down the full length from Lee's Ferry to the last haul out spot with the Sanderson Co. Experience of a lifetime!

Subscribed!

It's to bad that won't be enough for Lake Mead. Oh and good job on your video 📹

Where is this calm portion of the river with the wooden stairwell? At about the 13:21 mark. Looks beautiful!

Nice editing collage!

Before everyone gets bent out of shape about this release... Most importantly: The High Flow Experiment (HFE) *DOES NOT* increase the amount of water released during the year. The extra water discharged during the HFE is accounted for by reducing the normal daily release by 1-2% during the other 361 days of the year. The yearly release of water from Glen Canyon Dam is mandated by the Colorado River Compact of 1922, so it is a matter of federal law. It's only 4 pages long and straightforward to comprehend. Easy reading while sitting on the toilet. It's archaic, poorly conceived when it was written, and made even worse over the past 100 years of development in the American West. For now, it is what we are stuck with. If anyone can come up with a reasonable compromise that fits the needs of agriculture, urban development, rural communities, Native Americans, recreation, and environmental protection on a river system that seven states depend on, you may be eligible for a Nobel Prize.

I was there in 1996 when they Did a purge just like this. It was Quite a sight too see!!

Love the video and super excited for the water levels to go up you got to love mother nature 🌬️ ❤ 🌧️

Another excellent post, Sir R. You always seem to be in the right place at the right time. Are you secretly BuWreck's official videographer? Of course, with Powell so low, they're releasing this water at just the right time to avoid giving the fishies downstream nightmares. The water being drawn off is very close to the surface and therefore is the warmest Powell has to offer. When the reservoir is at higher elevtions those releases are of much colder water which then gives the fish a bit of a headache.

That would be horrible if even one of those valves got stuck open! Cool footage. So much power! Got things moving down stream. That’s for sure.

This was me before my prostate had other ideas.

Beautiful editing !

I remember when they did that some decades ago, for the same reason. As I recall, many were concerned of the impact it had on the fish ecology (too much sediment) while others argued it was necessary to improve spawning. Regardless, I'll always remember Lee's Ferry for the size of trout I caught

Great footage. Thanks for sharing and documenting,. Did you drift down to each location to film? How did you get before and after in so many locations?

Fantastic! Great footage!!🤘🤘

Love the video, thank you. What camera equipment did you use?

Wow so much water

I thought these shower heads were illegal.

It is a thing of great beauty....😁

Actually, Ratty, I see now where they are letting this water out from. Apart from the two spillways, there are ten ways for water to pass through Glen Canyon Dam: eight of them are the penstocks at 3470 that feed water to the turbines and the other two are the 'river outlets' at 3374. So it's no wonder the water shoots out with such force: there's currently a hydraulic head of 150' above the 'river outlet' ports. The water in this HFE isn't as warm as I first assumed. If Powell was ever to drop to the level of the 'river outlets' at 3374 (which it probably never will) it would reach 'Dead Pool' whereby 8% of the reservoir would be trapped behind the dam. The water would be approximately 240' deep at the back face of the dam. Of course, the Colorado would continue to flow into Powell and out through the 'river outlets' down to Mead. Obviously Powell has to deliver 7.5 maf downstream each year and there was some speculation as to whether these 'river outlets' could a) pass enough water to meet the demands of the Lower Basin and b) withstand a constant maximum flow that they weren't designed to take. That's probably a conundrum for a future generation to fathom. Did you just say they are going to release 84% of water coming into Powell down to Mead? That will be interesting.

Send it down cause we need it👍

Thank You! Great job!

I think they washed the Spider out.

If we would stop the vicious waste of water for pure opulence it would be a major step forward. Vegas and its population in a desert must be an insane strain on the water system. Uncovered pools, golf courses, lawns and old leaking infrastructure are all points we could attempt a better way to use what's available.

Multiple reports stated that Powell would raise over 50 ft. This is just the first release which only raises Mead 1 ft. Many more to come.

dude this is fckn awesome.