Grand Canyon flood 1983 100,000 cfs part one of two

Slideshow put together for 25th anniversary Grand Canyon River Guides Training Seminar, March 29-30, 2008 about the year Glen Canyon dam nearly burst. (Anyone having more footage they'd like to share, please contact Jeffe)

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• Grand
• Canyon
• Colorado
• River
• Whitewater
• Running
• Glen
• dam
• 1983
• floods
• Guides

[Jeffe01]

See updated full video on Vimeo. Some great additions!

[ecjohnson010]

It was awesome watching this at the GTS last weekend! What an awesome weekend... can't wait till my season gets rolling now. I want to know what the first song is and the song that's playing in the Lava footage. Thanks!

[Jeffe01]

Joe Ely off the Letters from Laredo album; Just to Get to You, and Gallo Del Cielo. My favorites! (and fitting perhaps!). Not sure who this is, but hope to see you on the water.

[ecjohnson010]

Oh, looked at this again... I'm Ethan, I'm working my first season for Canyoneers. Then hopefully some baggage for CanX or OU in Septemeber.

[Jeffe01]

Best of luck, amigo. It's the best job in the world.

[Jeffe01]

Best of luck, amigo. It's the best job in the world.

[Arbitrage69]

Thank you Youtube for disabling the audio. What else might you do to make it less enjoyable?

[doug81280]

I was working at Phantom in 83. We had real concern that the dam might go. Had survival caches at several spots on the Tonto Platform.

[WalnutCreekRanch]

Great video, I was a passenger on a Wilderness boat during the flood and we were one of the last ones that got to ride Crystal. The boat had flipped the day before. This was my third trip down the river and it was totally different. Rapids that had no names and were only numbers were dangerous. One ripped our pontoon partially off with me on it, it was the ride of a lifetime. Lava seemed fairly tame by the time we got to it since it was so high. No beaches were they should be Great job Les& Mark

[AlSwearengen15]

Wow really is amazing. I cant imagine actually being able to boat into Redwall Cavern

[timskrbelieve]

I put on the day before they closed the canyon on a private trip with some folks from Flagstaff. Myself and 3 other kayakers and a paddle raft and motor raft. The Park Service started flying into our camp via helicopter and talking with us on a regular basis. The river was HUGE, I got swallowed by a couple of whirlpools, they just sort of sucked me down, I'd flip and they disappear, nothing really dangerous. The hole at Crystal was big. Lots fo fun,

[kingmike40]

I know a guy who lived in vegas in 83. I was in vegas in 2003 and noticed that lake mead was way down. Travis, the guy who lived in vegas, told me that he could walk across the hoover dam and touch the water on the lake mead side. I was told that hoover dam had to keep its gates open full for 30 days.

[tardgo]

We went down directly after the highest water but the river was still as high as anyone has seen since.

I remember that eddy at right side of Chrystal very damn well.

Pull for your life!

[scottgaffney69]

Wow, that video brings me back. My family got on the river with Hatch River Expeditions just before they closed the canyon down. Considering the youngest of us was 13, my parents were a little freaked. The canyon was virtually empty midsummer (we came across one group at the Little Colorado), no beaches, and rapids where the guides have never seen them. The water got so high that the hole at Crystal washed out, but the carnage was lashed to the shores downstream. It was certainly memorable.