a boy and his river
I consider it a great accomplishment that I spent an entire week in the desert sun of the Colorado River delta without getting sunburned.
Archive of posts filed under the Colorado River category.
A river underground
You’ve seen lots of pretty pictures of the Colorado River flowing anew into its delta, right? But one of the most interesting things going on is the movement of water out of sight, beneath the ground (see “hydrology at the end of a river” for some background). I had a chance this morning to visit …
Following the Rio Colorado west
I took a break today from the excitement of following a newly rejuvenated Colorado River south, across the border into Mexico, where it rarely flows, and followed “the river” west instead. Forty-nine river miles upstream from the “Southern International Boundary” – essentially the bridge at San Luis Rio Colorado – a structure known as Imperial …
multiple meanings of “presa”
SAN LUIS RIO COLORADO – Morelos Dam, the last dam on the Colorado, normally diverts the river’s entire flow west, into the Canal Reforma, for farms in the Mexicali valley. In Spanish, it’s called “Presa Morelos,” where “presa” means “dam.” But Francisco Rosas, a Mexicali farmer, told me that it has a second meaning – …
A pickup, stuck in the Colorado River sand
SAN LUIS RIO COLORADO – Apologies. This is kinda convoluted, but it’s what happened. One of my journalistic techniques is to try to put myself in a place where something interesting is likely to happen, something real, and then wait. So at lunchtime today, I parked in the shade of the San Luis Bridge on …
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hydrology at the end of a river
Hydrologically speaking, the end of a river is a complicated thing. A couple of miles down the levee road on the U.S. side of the border with Baja in Yuma County, Ariz., I came across this farmer yesterday pumping groundwater to irrigate some sort of palm orchard (with some lovely bonus citrus). This is a …
Memories of water
When last we met, I was waxing poetic about the memories of water in San Luis Rio Colorado: I asked Medina, who kindly served as translator for a monolingual norteño, when San Luis had last seen water in the Rio Colorado. “1998,” he said. What struck me was how he said it without hesitation, and …
Four guys walking down the Colorado River
“La Cuenca is dead right now”
SAN LUIS RIO COLORADO – Manuel Campa was very particular. His town’s name is often shortened to merely “San Luis”, but standing in the dry bed of the Colorado River this morning, the full name mattered very much. “It’s the only city that has the name ‘Rio Colorado,’” he said. The sandy riverbed beneath the …
Presa Morelos: when in doubt, make a bird list
LOS ALGODONES, B.C. – I made it to Yuma with time to spare this afternoon, so I dumped my bags at the motel and drove around to the Andrade border crossing and through the little town of Algodones (best dentists in North America!) to Morelos Dam. I couldn’t find the angle to get the picture I wanted, …
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