Where Are You Going?

5 min readNov 14, 2014

Cody Perry— Tuesday, July 01, 2014

You might have seen me walking on the side of the road here and there through town. Winter has expressed herself enough this year that the streets are flanked with towering mounds snow like micro mountain ranges. Walking as a method of transport this season is admittedly messy. Every car or truck rolls by with a different chorus of agony. All puddles should be avoided. Imported volcanic rock, crushed to a glassy powder, stains these corridors like slurried coal. Between the driveways and along the streets I try and judge the snow water content sitting in each of the neighbor’s front yards. Thinking of what flows may come from a spring river. Suddenly I’m snapped back in the moment by a passing truck on a rampage somewhere and I wonder, where are you going?

The Yampa River, daughter to these mountains, seems poised for a proper spring runoff. After two below average water years, I am her delighted child. There is no other river between the ocean and your front door as wild and free as the Yampa. Many are quick to point out that the Yampa is dammed, that there are reservoirs along the upper portion. As if that changes the wild nature that this river can exhibit. Compared to other strangled basins of relative size like the Gunnison or Dolores, the Yampa sings her heart out. It’s the color of steeped tea running through Steamboat Springs, a buckskin horse after joining the Elk and a blond chocolate by the time it arrives at Deerlodge. The beaches in Yampa Canyon feel like soda pop on your feet and the Box Elders bloom an indescribable drowsy green. I saw my first river otter just below the 5th street Bridge. A moment I have waited for since I can remember. After a terrifying swim in Cataract my mind was bullied by the rivers power. I wouldn’t shake that feeling until a record high water year made Warm Springs the most dangerous rapid I’ve pushed a boat into. Nothing is like that surge of absolute conductivity safely below a rapid. Looking back it represented the mountainsides of snow, the flowers come to bloom and grass sway, the ancient cycle of the Sandhill Crane and the friendly faces of home. Home is where the heart is. This river is about us all. In 100 short years our society has dug ourselves a mighty trench of dependency on the rivers of the Colorado Basin. We’ve engineered delivery systems to concentrated populations across this harsh region. Water from the rivers is pumped to Cheyenne, FT. Collins, Greeley, Boulder, Denver, Colorado Springs, Salt Lake City, The Wasatch Front, Las Vegas, Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Los Angeles, San Diego, Phoenix, Tucson, Mexicali and Tijuana. Fortunes have been made. Rivers are legal tender. Wars have been won. This is truly an amazing achievement with a price tag that we as a people have yet to consider. Water, being an irreplaceable square one resource in a finite amount, isn’t really a concern of ours. That’s why the Yampa is on the chop block. May 14th 2013 Governor Hicklooper issued an executive order calling for the development of a State Water Plan. Colorado stands a chance of doubling its population in the next 30 years and the order essentially charged planners to address the gap between the current water supply and the projected demands of future growth. This is the New West, same as the Old West. Part of the State Water Plan’s purpose is to vigilantly protect and appropriate Colorado’s water, if only it were that simple. We not only have a legal obligation to deliver flows downstream to 17 different states but a dependence on the food grown there. Do you like Oranges, Almond Milk and Pistachios? Cause we don’t grow any of that here in Colorado. The plan talks of “sustainable cities, viable and productive agriculture, robust skiing and recreation, smart land use and a strong environment”. Yes, we need all of these things. The real question is, how are we to proceed? A friend attending a recent Interbasin Compact Committee meeting told me with no hesitation that “they” are coming for the Yampa. I can see the fat arm of water buffalo so and so approaching him from behind with a condescending smile and gravelly voice saying, “I told you we’d be coming”. This isn’t the first time the Yampa has been a target for Front Range diversion, and surely not the last. Instead of any diversions we should first employ the guidance of efficiency in industrial, agricultural and municipal sectors. We should strive to work resilience rather than dependence into the hands of future generations. Retrofit landscaping in cities and implement tiered pricing for those whose lawns are a must. Lets have industrial and municipal sectors recycle, reuse and capture storm water. Lets modernize the agricultural sector to be on the cutting edge of efficient irrigation. Our money and energy should be full fledged committed to these collective opportunities. Not sucking the last drops of life from the rivers that have already given so us much. Considering what’s at stake I admit my concern about these times flying by. You see, society is that truck that rumbles past me on the road. When I look inside, I see myself at the wheel and I can’t help but wonder. Where are you going?