Dolores River conservation efforts surge with record flows

This story first appeared in The Outsider, the premium outdoor newsletter by Jason Blevins.

In it, he covers the industry from the inside out, plus the fun side of being outdoors in our beautiful state.

BEDROCK — This month’s swirling flow in the Dolores River is mostly snowmelt from the Disappointment Creek basin that drains almost 350 square miles of the western San Juans before joining the meandering Dolores through miles of dramatic Wingate Sandstone canyon. 

So … disappointment feeds the River of Sorrows. 

“Sounds like someone had a bad time down here,” says Rica Fulton, the advocacy and stewardship director for Dolores River Boating Advocates, jesting from her bobbing boat deep in the Dolores Canyon.

“Kinda hard to imagine right…