An effective sediment trap...

is functioning at the newly constructed Placer Creek crossing on what should be a self-maintaining structure. Recent storms have flushed fine sediment onto the concrete stream crossing where it has accumulated, rather than being continuously transported further downstream. More sediment is perched in the channel upstream to be mobilized in the next event, but at least the stream bed can’t erode or incise deeper at the road crossing.

UPDATE: The deposited sediment has been cleared off the structure, but in doing so additional berms have been created on the downstream side of the concrete crossing. This will further impede the next flow event and cause even more sediment to be deposited across the structure. Not a very wise long-term maintenance strategy.

Normally dry stream crossings...

turned into rapidly flowing muddy torrents within minutes in response to the passing of an intense thunderstorm cell. My neighbor and I were enrolled in the Bronco Off-Roadeo driving clinic and were out on the Dome Plateau trail undergoing guided training. It was absolutely perfect conditions to demonstrate the vehicle’s capabilities and the Bronco powered right through the mud and easily ascended wet and slippery slickrock.

Owl Draw on the Dome Plateau, north of Dewey Bridge.

Why the off road training? I am about to take possession of the 2025 Bronco Badlands/Sasquatch next week in Moab that I had ordered in late June this year. I’m somewhat excited!

3 November 2025 UPDATE: The Bronco has landed in Moab and is being prepped by the dealer.

The snow is nearly gone...

and summertime storm clouds blossom over the high La Sal Mountains. Less than two weeks until the summer solstice.

UPDATE: Peak flow on the Colorado River has likely just occurred, capping an unremarkable spring runoff. Here’s the one year hydrograph for the Colorado River at the Cisco gage showing that this year’s peak flow (blue line) is one-third of last year’s value (brown line) and less than half the median value (dotted line).

Counting every drop...

of legally diverted water from Castle Creek, now being performed digitally and remotely since the Utah Department of Natural Resources has just installed a real-time monitoring point using a solar powered sonic water level sensor and radio transmitter. Previously, someone would have to visit this site and visually read the staff gage in the Parshall flume through which the water is flowing in order to calculate the flow. This new system is undoubtedly calibrated to the old staff gage, and likely radios the data in real-time, or perhaps daily.

Newly installed electronic gaging station next to Castle Creek above the town of Castle Valley. Note the metal Parshall flume box through which the water is flowing, away from the viewer in this image.

The sonic water level sensor at the upstream end of the Parshall flume. Note staff gage on side of flume.

The diverted water is claimed under three water rights granted in 1885, 1891 and 1933 for 2.0, 1.033 and 1.9172 cfs (cubic feet per second) respectively according to Utah DNR records.

UPDATE: An additional remote water gauging station has been installed on the 14-inch diameter iron pipe that transfers water from the point of diversion to the fields for irrigation lower in the valley. This is about 1.1 miles below the point of diversion seen above.

Nearly back to normal...

snow water content in the high country as a result of several late-winter storms this month. But the valleys remain exceptionally dry, with my gauge recording only 0.15 inches (~4 mm) of precipitation from yesterday’s storm.

Lingering clouds obscure the higher La Sal Mountains where snow is almost certainly still falling this morning.

Current SNOTEL data showing 92% median snow water equivalent in the snowpack with 18 days to go to the median peak.

An interesting groundwater seep...

at the stratigraphic contact between the Cutler and Moenkopi Formations below Adobe Mesa bears some further examination, but it’s a difficult scramble to its location on steep and unstable slopes. Light-colored mineral deposits, likely either calcium carbonate (calcite) or calcium sulfate (gypsum), occur at the margins of the seep.

Sediment aggradation will almost certainly occur...

in the ephemeral stream channel upstream of the newly installed concrete ford in Placer Creek, rather than being continuously transported across the structure when the stream is flowing. Engineers should have matched the elevation of the stream bed rather than maintain the road grade at the crossing. While this structure isn’t going anywhere in future floods, it will require maintenance after each event in clearing accumulated sediment, in perpetuity. It could have been self-maintaining, so let’s see how it performs over the next decade.

The brand-spanking-new $188,889 mega-concrete stream crossing structure on Placer Creek at the entrance of Round Mountain State Park.

A mild autumn season...

comes to a close in three days on the winter solstice and the extended forecast is for continued dry conditions with moderate temperatures. The Old Farmer’s Almanac is predicting that “precipitation and snowfall will be average or above average throughout the Intermountain Region. The snowiest periods will fall in mid-November, early and late January, and mid-March.” We shall see.

Another vibrant sunrise this morning above the La Sal Mountains. It’s good to be a morning person.

The snow water equivalent in the snowpack has flatlined since late-November, now just 121% of median.

The Culebra Cut of Castle Valley...

is being excavated at the Placer Creek dry stream crossing. Methinks this is a grossly overengineered and expensive solution to an erosion problem that no longer exists, but that’s just 40+ years of experience as a fluvial geomorphologist talking.

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the community, the drainage ditches that are choked with sediment from summer flooding go largely unattended. Pure negligence.

These enormous imbricated boulders...

were certainly moving as bedload in this ephemeral wash below Adobe Mesa during the flash flooding events this summer. Here they now sit, shingled on top of one another, likely stranded for a decade or more until mobilized in the next extreme hydrologic event in this drainage.

As artificial as the sky and cloudscape appears in this image, it was that lovely of a day in Castle Valley.