Big Thompson River In Estes Park

Title

Big Thompson River In Estes Park

Artist

Jon Burch Photography

Medium

Photograph - Digital Capture & Enhancement

Description

The headwaters of the Big Thompson River begin in Forest Canyon within Rocky Mountain National Park in Larimer County, Colorado. The river flows east through Moraine Park to the town of Estes Park. There it is held in Lake Estes by Olympus Dam before being released into the Big Thompson Canyon. The North Fork Big Thompson River also begins in Rocky Mountain National Park, on the northern slopes of the Mummy Range. This tributary flows east, through the town of Glen Haven, where it merges with the Big Thompson River in the town of Drake, in the Big Thompson Canyon.

From Lake Estes, the river descends 1/2 miles in elevation through the mountains in the spectacular 25 mile long Big Thompson Canyon, emerging from the foothills west of Loveland. It flows eastward, south of Loveland across the plains into Weld County and joins the South Platte approximately 5 miles south of Greeley. It receives the Little Thompson River approximately four miles upstream from its mouth.

Water resources in the Big Thompson River are managed by the Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District as part of the Colorado-Big Thompson Project.

On July 31, 1976, during the celebration of Colorado's centennial, the Big Thompson Canyon was the site of a devastating flash flood that swept down the steep and narrow canyon, claiming the lives of 143 people, 5 of whom were never found. This flood was triggered by a nearly stationary thunderstorm near the upper section of the canyon that dumped 12 inches of rain in less than 4 hours which is more than 3/4 of the average annual rainfall for the area. Little rain fell over the lower section of the canyon, where many of the victims were.

Around 9 p.m., a wall of water more than 20 feet high raced down the canyon at about 14 miles per hour, destroying 400 cars, 418 houses and 52 businesses and washing out most of U.S. Route 34. This flood was more than 4 times as strong as any in the 112-year record available in 1976, with a discharge of 1,000 cubic meters per second.

The canyon was just one of the many areas along the Front Range that were devastated in the September 2013 flood. While not as intense as the 1976 flood, the storms that caused the flooding in 2013 still sent enough water down the canyon to wash out the highway in many places. The flood also damaged the United States Bureau of Reclamation's Dille Diversion Dam. The biggest infrastructure casualty, however, was the City of Loveland's hydroelectric plant which was rebuilt after the 1976 flood, the Idylwilde Reservoir was completely filled with silt and rocks, the Idylwilde Dam broke free of the bedrock, and the hydroelectric plant in the Viestenz-Smith Mountain Park was filled with water and silt. The dam was in the process of being relicensed but was instead demolished, the dam material and contents of the reservoir being used as fill for highway repairs. The park is currently being redone in such a way to better withstand future flooding.

Some digital effects were applied to the original image after the photograph was made. No electrons were harmed during the transition. Ordered images will not contain the FAA watermark

Image copyright 2019 Jon Burch Photography

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September 2nd, 2019

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