Ark experts?

[Id725]

I went down and played on the Parkdale stretch Sunday -- the upper hole in Double Drop is sweet at this level.
Visually, I would say it was running 350.
But the guages are all off! I can't find a flow. It just says "seasonal" or "n/a"
Can anybody help?
If it's still running 350 next weekend, I'll play Parkdale again and then run the Gorge, also good at 350.
But if I get down there and find that it's dropped 100 cfs, then I've wasted the 1-hour drive and screwed up my weekend. Or if I put in for the Gorge and couldn't tell that it was 275 instead of 350, I would certainly figure it out when I got to Sledgehammer, and that would blow -- I don't want to run that below 325.
So is there any way besides visual to track Ark flows for the next couple weeks?
Thanks for any help.

[Andy H.]

Check the functional gages at Salida and Wellsville here:

http://www.dwr.state.co.us/Hydrology/flow_search.asp

[Id725]

Thanks Andy --
But I'm not clear. Do either of those readings reflect what is flowing at Parkdale, or is there a conversion formula or something?
Thanks again.

[gh]

This happens every winter. The parkdale gauge either comes out of the water around 300 or doesnt function. It will be this way till April. If you dont want to do the gorge below 300 then you should probably wait till spring.

[J.W. Wilder]

The Arkansas Headwaters Recreation Area and the Arkansas River Outfitters Association pay for the operation of the Number's, Brown's and Parkdale gauges for 6 months a year. The meaniful gauge for the other 6 months is the Wellsville Gauge. Open Mountain Buzz go to FLOWS scroll down the page to the Colorado State page go to the Wellsville page and you will be able to get the historic data and see what it was reading when you ran it last.


You should also be able to go to the USGS page (also in the FLOWS and open Parkdale and make a comparison of the flow levels of Wellsville and Parkdale so you can have SWAG (Scientific Wild Ass Guess) of what the Wellsville readings will mean for Farkdale flows.

Thanks Mountain Buzz for your FLOW page you have really captured one stop flow shopping.

Jay Dub

[Id725]

Thanks, guys.

300 at Wellsville seems to correlate to about 350 at Parkdale/Royal Gorge.
Or at least it did for about 10 days end-of-September-to-early-October.
At any rate, it would be tough to imagine LESS water at Parkdale than Wellsville, right?

And Wellsville's comin back up today -- Game On this weekend!