Возникновение порога в каньоне Катаракт может парализовать сплав и вынудить национальный парк строить новый причал

In January of this year, members of the Returning Rapids Project noticed a ledge starting to protrude upstream of the North Wash boat ramp. Though completely submerged by water less than a year ago, this strip of rock just downstream of the confluence of the Colorado River and the Dirty Devil River now sticks out enough to create a riffle, or small patch of turbulent water. If ignored, the riffle could grow into a rapid and potentially form a waterfall—rendering the newly installed boat ramp unusable and stalling miles of river restoration upstream. "This factor could affect at least 26 miles of river in Cataract Canyon," said Mike DeHoff, principal investigator of the Returning Rapids Project. "There's a chance that people could encounter an un-runnable rapid two hundred yards upstream of where they want to take their boat out this year...It could shut down or greatly hamper running Cataract Canyon." How did the ledge form? DeHoff said this rapid is forming in an area where the river has been pushed out of its historic channel by reservoir-deposited sediment. As the Colorado moves through these soft layers of silt where the reservoir once was, it cuts downwards at a significant rate—sometimes as much as four meters a year. According to DeHoff, the river is generally downcutting at a slower rate this year because it's at a lower flow, but in the North Wash area that rate has slowed even more because the river hit a rock layer it can't carve through. "That acts like a low head dam in the sense that the river's carving down and hits that hard thing, and then it backs the river up upstream of it," said Pete Lefebvre, a seasoned river guide who works with Returning Rapids. "They call it a knickpoint...That knickpoint forms and then it changes the whole erosional process upstream." Lefebvre and DeHoff said knickpoints can create sandbars because they cause rivers to lose energy and drop their sediment load. Knickpoints can also halt river restoration upstream. "That recovery process of rapids coming back, and the flow, and the campsites, and the native vegetation, and sandy beaches and all that stuff—that is all contingent upon the river being able to carve down. Once that carving process stops, all the restoration upstream stops," said Lefebvre. What can be done? To address the ledge issue, the National Park Service plans to construct a take out ramp on the south side of the Colorado River, just west of the bridge at Hite and upstream of the ledge. According to the NPS website, the North Hite ramp is estimated to cost $27 million, and contractors' qualifications were due July 17, 2026. A Technical Evaluation Panel is reviewing them to shortlist design-build teams for a second round of proposals, but as of August 14 the Park Service had not publicly announced which teams were selected, and no contract award has been posted. Although the park service claims it performed hydrology assessments to identify "feasible recommend locations for a take out ramp" that would be "more sustainable long-term," Lefebvre and DeHoff doubt the ramp will be an effective or long-term solution. "It's not the best spot, but they don't have a lot of options," said Lefebvre. "No sane engineer would decide to put a boat ramp there if they had the option to put it further downstream...but they're putting it there because of this rapid starting to form, and so it's forcing their hand in their eyes to put it in this very narrow window." Lefebvre said the area proposed by NPS is extremely cliffy, and will require blasting through vertical sandstone walls as tall as 100 feet to create a ramp. DeHoff emphasized that the project will have a profound impact on the landscape, and will be visible from space, while only serving people upstream of the ledge and failing to address the issue of habitat restoration. When asked about the solution proposed by the park service, DeHoff said he feels "they're doing a disservice to the very resources that they're supposed to protect and preserve." Instead of creating an entirely new ramp, the members of Returning Rapids Project suggest the park service consider avoiding the ledge by returning the river to its original channel and using the existing infrastructure at the Hite Marina to extend a take out ramp. They say this solution would create far less impact on the landscape than blasting through the cliffside. It would also serve people upstream and downstream of the ramp and create a "preferable traffic pattern" that would direct people to preexisting park and concessionaire facilities in the Hite area. In their 2026 Field Binder, RRP wrote that "no formal scoping has been done to evaluate the cost/benefits of putting the river back in its channel vs proceeding with the North Hite ramp project," but that "putting the river in its channel would allow for further sediment evacuation and restoration in Lower Cataract and Narrow Canyons." "I think just flat out, it would be the best stewardship of the area to put the river back in its channel," DeHoff said. This story is part of our public lands coverage. See all 254 stories → Also part of: canyonlands national park, Colorado River, national parks, Outdoors Stay Updated Get updates on public lands news delivered to your inbox.