![]() Now that the reservoir is below 3,525 feet, it has officially crossed the “hydropower buffer” - which forces policymakers to start working on a solution. Under the pressures of overuse and climate change, the fate of the entire Colorado River system is being redetermined in real time, amid what scientists think is the worst drought in over 1,200 years. In fact, in March, it withered below 3,525 feet above sea level, the lowest it’s been since before it was filled in May 1968. It ends with Lake Powell, actually a reservoir, which has been dropping precipitously in recent years. The reason a waterfall has been missing from the Colorado Plateau for 54 years isn’t a simple story, but more of an embroiled history of water use in the western United States. But even in that moment, I know that from a different perspective the changes happening here are reason for unease, not revelry. Dumbfounded, I take it as a good omen - another sign of life finding its way again in the vast labyrinth in the rocks. No way in or out, except via the water or by rappelling down the falls. Seeing a fully grown deer here is stunning, not just because this part of the canyon only recently emerged, but because it’s almost completely isolated. A massive six-point stag is staring down at me. It’s also a complicated thing.Īs I crane my neck to take in the scale of the walls around me, something moves and catches my eye. After rounding one last corner of the canyon, there it is: a 60-foot cascade bellowing into a clear pool. It gives me chills, knowing that this sound hasn’t been heard since 1968. ![]() ![]() Not far from here is Cathedral in the Desert - a famed grotto in the heart of Glen Canyon. Somewhere between Bullfrog, Utah, and the Hole in the Rock trailhead, I’m following the distant rumbling of a waterfall, echoing between 500-foot walls of Navajo Sandstone.
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