Zion:Water Level

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When you return from a Canyon in Zion - please update this page with the most recent conditions. This way, we can all benefit from having one place to check the current conditions

[edit] Water Level

As of May 11th, the water level in almost every canyon is high. This is due to the large snowpack there that is still melting. Many people who were going to do Pine Creek Canyon recently have decided not to because of high flow through the canyon.

Permits for any canyon exiting into The Narrows are not being issued because of extremely high flow in The Narrows. It's currently flowing around 950 cfs. (Whitewater rafting sites claim that at above 400 cfs the Virgin River is very dangerous even for rafting...) Current Virgin River Conditions

[edit] Weather

The weather in Zion may be warm - but the water level is so high that many canyons are out of season. The Kolob Resevoir is releasing at 100cfs so Kolob Canyon is out of the question for quite some time. Think twice about the canyons you are going to do down there, and call the Backcountry Desk if you want to get an opinion on what canyons have decent conditions in them.

[edit] External Links

Government-provided water indicators

• The NRCS has a snowpack monitoring station at Kolob with data online
• The USGS has their provisional streamflow data for the Virgin River online