While much of New Mexico burns and many recreation areas are off limits, rafters have been enjoying an unexpected bounty of white water on the Rio Grande, which is wide open to visitors.

"It's been pretty awesome considering what the outlook had been," says John Seiner, 36, of Kokopelli Rafting of Santa Fe. "Some of us weren't even expecting a (Taos) box season due to the expected lack of runoff. But here it is."

River-running thrill seekers might want to get on a raft sometime this long Fourth of July weekend, because there's no telling how long it will last.

"There's just small pockets of snow left high up on the mountains," says Craig Cotten, Division Engineer for the Colorado Division of Water Resources in Alamosa, Colo.

The Rio Grande's headwaters flow from the mountains above Creede, Colo., where high snowpack averaged 75 percent this year because of a long, dry winter caused by a La Niña weather pattern.

And on top of that, water experts such as Cotten also expected extremely dry soil conditions, a lack of lower level snowpack, hot winds and warm temperatures to reduce what snowpack existed to a trickle by the time it reaches the big river.

Thus, members of the Rio Grande's rafting industry have been elated in recent weeks with the arrival of high water flows that peaked near 1,200 cfs (cubic-feet-per-second) during the first week of June. Water levels, however, dropped the second week and then peaked above 1,000 cfs during the third week.

Most recently, the water flow climbed to 800 cfs last week and is currently holding strong near 600 or 700 cfs, according to tracking data at www.usgs.gov.

Seiner of Kokopelli says the exciting 16-mile ride through the box section, which runs from the John Dunn Bridge down to the Taos Junction Bridge above Pilar, has been a blast this year and is ideally suited now for newcomers because of its moderate level.

"And with the heat, it's been nice to be on the water, and it's not as smoky down in the canyon due to the breeze," Seiner says. "It's been a good year."

River runners will take customers down the box at flows as low as 500 cfs, but after that it's too difficult to navigate among the boulders.

White-water enthusiasts, too, can run the 5-mile Racecourse section between Pilar and the Taos-Rio Arriba County line, where the action is lively even at lower flows.

Over the year, rafting companies have adapted to provide highly entertaining trips even at lower flows by using smaller rafts and adding funyaks — inflatable kayaks — for customers to paddle themselves on the lower section of the river.

For more information on finding a commercial guide, visit www.blm.gov/nm/st/en/prog/recreation/taos/commercial_private.html.

Statewide fire restrictions and public land closures are not expected to impact the Rio Grande, but campfires and fireworks are banned as they are in many other parts of the state, says John Bailey, the BLM's Recreation manager in Taos.

The Rio Chama also remains open to rafting despite forest closures, and flows are increased on weekends to accommodate recreational users.

Karl F. Moffatt is a longtime New Mexico journalist and avid outdoorsman who can be contacted through his blog at www.outdoorsnewmexico.com.


IF YOU GO

From Santa Fe, take U.S. 84/285 north to Española and then follow Riverside Drive through town. Stay on N.M. 68 north toward Taos until reaching Pilar and the Bureau of Land Management's Rio Grande Gorge Visitor Center.