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July 29th, 2015

7/29/2015

Colorado is a playboating mecca with at least 50 man made features in more than 19 play parks. From May (sometimes April) through at least mid-August there are almost always several excellent features available. This site will help get you to the right place at the right time.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, a video is worth a million! This site shows more than 40 waves and holes in action. With your help we hope to soon be showing more waves and holes, and showing them at different water levels as well.

This site is a collaborative work in progress and we need your help. We can’t be everywhere at once, and playparks are always changing. Please contribute your comments and videos. In many cases, even a short two line e-mail about levels will be helpful, or if you want to get more detailed you can look at our conventions before contributing. If you send a video, it needn't be elaborate. We will send an Anybody Can Kayak DVD or download of your choice to anyone who contributes a video of a play park showing each of the features at a water level we don't already have. Contact Us.

Predicting Colorado Water Levels. Colorado river levels depend almost exclusively on snow pack and late spring rains. Rains during the kayaking season have very little effect on kayaking. A typical river rises fairly quickly in May when the snow starts to melt, peaks sometime in late June or early July, then declines. Each river goes through this cycle at a different speed. Some come up in May. Some last through August. A few have longer seasons. The graph below for Buena Vista is fairly typical. 2019 will be a wonderful water year for most of the play parks. Overall we have approximately 150% of normal water. We will reach high water levels and the levels should go later into the summer.

Our personal recommendations: (in alphabetical order)

Favorite Holes:
     Buena Vista 600 - 3,000 cfs.
     Durango 29th street 1,600 - 2000 cfs?
     Golden > 600 cfs.
Salida 750-1,400 cfs.
Favorite Waves:
     Canon City > 4,200 cfs.
Confluence Trestle Wave @3,700+-
Durango > 2,800 cfs.
Glenwood
   Montrose > 200 cfs. for beginners/intermediates
Favorite Beginner/Intermediate spots for learning to surf, or surfing and spinning:
   Buena Vista < 1,300 cfs.
   Durango 1,000 - 3,000 cfs.
   Glenwood Springs < 4,000 cfs.
   Montrose 200- 700 cfs.
Pagosa Springs 300 - 750 ???????
   Salida 500 - 650 cfs.
Most likely to be running in April:
   Glenwood Springs
   Pagosa Springs
   River Run Park
Most likely to run after mid July:
   Buena Vista
   Glenwood Springs
   Montrose
Pumphouse
     River Run Park
   Salida

Safety and legality. You will be sharing the playparks with rafters, tubers, swimmers, SUPers (SUPies, SUPits, whatever they are called) and fisherman. Those coming downstream always have the right of way, even tubers. If you are on a feature, move out of the way.

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