Storm Warnings and High Water

January Snow on the Working Dude Ranch

Well, I guess the weather people got the storm warning right. It looks like Colorado, not southern Arizona here on the ranch. We need the moisture – but it would be nice to spread it around a little. We are pushing 3 inches of rain and it’s sleeting right now. Plus there is still snow on the ground and 100% chance of more accumulation tonight. But not as much as a little north of us. Blue Vista overlook has 6 foot drifts and is still getting snow. Apparently, ADOT has given up trying to plow Highway 191 and just put up “Road Closed” barricades. They have run out of barricades there are so many closed roads. The town of Alpine is out of power and no one can drive there to fix it. Here on Eagle Creek we never have power – so we wouldn’t miss it anyway. That is one advantage to being 100% off grid!

Actually high water in the creek crossings is our biggest travel problem. We tend to get stuck on whatever side of the creek we are on when the water comes up. Right now Eagle Creek is impassable. It had 6000 cubic feet per second today at the pump station on Lower Eagle. Average is less than 50 cubic feet per second – big difference. We haven’t even bothered to go check Sheep Wash and Smith Canyon crossings – probably up also. Wait till that 6 feet of snow above us melts – we are going to have some WATER!