Day 9: June 16th

We sat through ridiculous traffic to get to Glen Canyon Dam because of road construction. Our tour guide for the dam did an excellent job in relaying the importance of the dam, the history of it, how it works, and it's effects on the environment down river. I had no idea that this dam was bigger than the hoover dam. Hoover dam is just 16 feet taller but has less concrete. He gave us many important facts an figures. He explained all the great benefits of hydroelectricity. For example no fossil fuels are burned and no emmisions are released. But what i found really interesting was that it only takes five minutes to start producing electricity as it would take a half hour for a coal plant. This is very valuable when demand spikes at peak hours.
He claimed that Lake Powell took 17 years to fill and that the lake collects 37 thousand acre feet of sediment a year. What I liked about this tour was how he kept mentioning the dam is not a "free lunch." What he means by this is athough it has no emissions and uses a renewable resource to produce power it does have effects down river. Its estimated the river needs 1 million acre feet of sediment to pass by that dam a year. And clearly the sediment is being trapped in the lake. Now they are trying to find ways where they can release water from the dam to produce artificial flooding. The natural floods that once occured revived the riparian forests and created important habitat for the fish in the river. From the book we read for the class, Restoring Colorado River Ecosystems these floodings have given a new light to the understanding of the river. The beaches that the floods create don't last forever, the river's beaches are always changing. Now with such little sedimentation the beaches last in an even shorter amount of time. This is why the floods are so important. According to the book after the dam was built just, 16% of the original amount of sand was being delivered to the beaches. Not enough to sustain these beach habitats. These beach habitats form backwaters imortant to native fish reproduction. The book mentions that high waters in the years of 1984 and 1985 showed increases in native fish populations. The relaying theme of the book is that decommisioning the dam would be the only way to recover the natural ecosystem that once existed on the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon. I agree 100% after reading the book. I think it should really be given a shot. Its our nation's most visited park and its sad to think the river that created it isn't even in its natural state. I think they should build a pump storage plant with the water they already have stored in Lake Powel. I'm no expert but i believe it could be done. Hopefully some day the dam will be decomissioned and the river can go back to its natural state.
Before we made it to the Grand Canyon we stopped at Horseshoe Bend for lunch. This place was absolutely unbelievable. It gave a great appreciation for the power of the river to carve such a spectacle into the earth's surface.

We got our campsite, ate, and then hade a discussion. Patrick explained to us how we would hike through four different habitats on our way to the bottom of the canyon. Also explaining our campsite would be on one of the few proper beaches that have formed on the river. We went to bed early to get lots of sleep for hike into the canyon in the morning.