Gila River in Flood - March 2023
The Gila River is normally dry this time of year. Actually, despite record winter rains, there hasn’t been enough rain to cause more than a slight flow in the river because most of that rain has soaked into the ground. But just upstream from where I took this image is the Tres Rios where the Agua Frio and the Salt Rivers flow into the Gila River. Again, there wouldn’t be enough ground runoff to cause a great deal of flooding EXCEPT, the Salt River flows from the Roosevelt Reservoir and that lake is very high from runoff from the mountains. And there are record-breaking depths of snow up on those mountains that are going to melt very soon. So the Corps of Engineers has been releasing water at a tremendous rate in an attempt to lower the lake level before the spring thaw. Thus, the Gila River is in flood.
It is difficult to see in this image, but was very obvious when I stood on the banks of the river, the Gila was very recently three or four feet higher than it was when I took this image on March 25th. I really would have like to get to the Tres Rios itself, but the Tres Rios wetland was closed because all of the roads to the campsites and trailheads were under water.
MWM
