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LR in the News
August 28, 2003

Hite Marina closure leaves Cataract Canyon outfitters high and dry

Times Independent
Moab, Utah
by Lisa Taylor, contributing writer

The end of a Cataract Canyon river trip usually involves motoring or rowing for miles from where Lake Powell effectively absorbs the Colorado River’s current to the small marina at Hite. This year, with the lake receding to record lows, some commercial trips are having to motor right on to Hall’s Crossing or Bullfrog, 45 miles to the south.

Lake Powell is currently about 100 feet below "full", and is expected to drop another 12 feet by next spring. Dropping water levels and rising sediment have acted as pincers, squeezing away the usable access at the marina on Hite’s eastern shore. In July, concessionaire ARAMARK got approval from the National Park Service to move its floating facilities down-lake, and in mid-August towed them completely clear of the area. The facilities include a floating store, fuel docks, water and septic lines, boat rentals, and courtesy docks. Hite’s land-based store, gas, water and sewer services are still open.

Commercial and private boaters can use an "at your own risk" launch area, but as water levels continue to drop, the primitive ramp is barely usable, and at least one outfitter, Sheri Griffith River Expeditions, has opted to continue to Hall’s Crossing, another 11 hours farther if the weather cooperates.
Tag-a-Long Expeditions president Bob Jones is frustrated that the Park Service didn’t heed outfitter warnings about the marina going dry. "They should have been ready, because we met with them in March and outlined almost to the day when they’d have to find a solution. I’m discouraged they’re not responding to the public."
Until the Park Service officially deals with the problem, Jones is improvising. "We’ve opened up another road [the NPS] allowed to the old marina site on the east side, where the water is pretty close. We’ve simply taken down our Snow-cat, to take people and boats across that dry mud." The dry mud he’s referring to is a 150-yard-wide band of compacted silt, webbed with cracks up to two inches across and two feet deep. Vehicles and pedestrians would have trouble with it on a dry day – if it rains, forget it.

Jones says the access he’s using won’t work for everyone, but argues that it wouldn’t cost much to upgrade it, and with the Colorado River’s original channel closest to the west side, "we’re where the water will always be." Tag-a-Long has about 12 more trips this season, and Jones isn’t interested in bypassing Hite. "The alternative – to go to Bullfrog – is 12 to 14 hours of motoring on a calm day, but if you get into wind and waves, rafts don’t go like hard-hull boats, they go all over the place."

As to the environmental impact of restoring river access on the western shore, Jones points out, "We’re talking about moving silt that’s not supposed to be there anyway. Any environmental assessment will tell you to get rid of it."

An ARAMARK/Park Service sediment survey done in 2000 showed that the Colorado River delta, effectively the "top" of the lake, had crept four miles downstream in four years, and was about 11 miles north of Hite.

The survey allowed the marina 35 years of use provided the reservoir held steady at 3,700 feet, an "incredibly optimistic" projection according to John Weisheit, conservation director of environmental group Living Rivers. "Considering the downstream demand for water, the present drought situation, and how the river erodes into the exposed sediment and feeds the delta, the facilities at Hite are basically history."

Even Jones, with a vested interest in Hite’s recovery, guesses it will take at least five years to restore the facilities, provided there’s a break in the drought and the reservoir can recharge. In the meantime, a 2003 NPS/ARAMARK survey showed the delta had already crept past Hite, and new dock and pumping-station closures pop up on the official Glen Canyon National Recreation Area website every week. Lake Powell businesses are insistent that there are still unlimited activities on the water – the trouble for the foreseeable future is how to get out there.

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