A journey down one of the last wild rivers in the American west: ‘The bullseye will always be on its back’
The Yampa River remains one of the last free-flowing rivers in the American West, but it faces increasing pressure from water demand and climate change. As the Colorado River basin struggles with drought, the Yampa's status as a wild, undammed waterway is increasingly at risk.
Why it matters
The Yampa serves as a vital ecological indicator and water source; its potential degradation highlights the broader crisis of water scarcity in the Western United States.
As other rivers have been drawn down, dammed and redirected, the Yampa has mostly remained wild and free. As US water wars rage, a tributary of the Colorado River faces unprecedented pressure. Visitors worry how long this aquatic ‘relict’ will last
Prefer the Guardian on Google O n an early morning in mid-May, a group of near strangers shoved camping gear and clothes into waterproof bags, slathered on sunscreen, and ambled into the bright-yellow rafts that would carry them down one of the last free-flowing rivers in the American west.
Unhindered by large dams or diversions, the Yampa curves across 250 miles (400km) of alpine tundras, cottonwood forests and ancient red-rock canyons, rising from Colorado’s Rocky mountains to where it joins with the Green River in Utah, much in the way it has for millions of years.
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