Despite dire news reports in recent days regarding Colorado’s below-average snowpack, people in the rafting industry expect plenty of water in most rivers throughout the summer.

That’s especially true for the northern parts of the state, according to the Colorado Water Supply Outlook from the Natural Resources Conservation Service, which reported in April that snowpack was “starkly different” across the state, with normal conditions in the north but below-normal conditions in the south. An updated report will be released next week.

Statewide, the snowpack was at 83% on April 1.

The South Platte Basin, which includes Clear Creek west of Denver and the Cache La Poudre River west of Fort Collins — popular rafting destinations — was at 98% of normal.

The Colorado River Headwaters basin was at 96%.

The Yampa-White-Little Snake basin in the northwestern corner of the state was at 93%.

“I think we’ll do fine, water-wise,” said David Costlow, executive director of the Colorado River Outfitters Association.

“Certainly, the central and northern part of the state will do better than the southern part.”

The Poudre, which originates high in Rocky Mountain National Park and flows down Poudre Canyon to Fort Collins en route to its confluence with the South Platte near Greeley, was 3% above normal. Kyle Johnson, co-owner of Poudre outfitter Rocky Mountain Adventures, said he is “cautiously optimistic” for a normal season, especially if spring temperatures are mild. His employees began river training this week, with plans to begin running trips on May 10.“We currently have the best snowpack in the state,” Johnson said. “We’re having unseasonably warm periods in early season, and that could definitely take a toll. It got up to 76 in Fort Collins (on Sunday), so we are seeing some earlier than seasonally normal flows. We could use another spring storm or two.”

Johnson may get his wish. Cool high temperatures and below-freezing overnight lows are forecast for Rocky Mountain National Park over the next eight days. Hot spring weather isn’t what outfitters want to see. They want mild temperatures that produce gradual snowmelt with steady, consistent flows.

“The way to think about it is that the snowpack is kind of a safe deposit box, and we want a nice monthly withdrawal from that account,” Johnson said. “We don’t want big expenditures early in the season. There is always the concern that a heat-up too early could create one of those large withdrawals.”

A different story in the south

The Arkansas River, which is at the heart of the rafting industry with more than 40% of the state’s rafting business, was only at 74% of normal overall. That figure is misleading, however, when it comes to rafting because the measuring stations in the Upper Arkansas, above rafting areas of the river, were reporting at 91%.

“We’ll be OK,” said Bob Hamel, executive director of the Arkansas River Outfitters Association. “We’re not going to have any record peaks. It’s going to be real family-friendly flows, and we’re not going to have flood situations. It’s not going to be super high water. We need to be honest about that.”

The Arkansas has an insurance policy of sorts, too. It receives summer infusions of water from the Ruedi Reservoir on the Western Slope, 13 miles east of Basalt. Water from the reservoir is pumped through a tunnel underneath the Continental Divide to Turquoise Lake near Leadville, then south to Twin Lakes before augmenting the Arkansas.

That water ultimately goes to municipal and agricultural needs downstream, but it lifts all boats along the way, both for rafters and fishing interests in the Gold Medal trout stream.

“We just get the benefit in the movement of that water, because we get to ride on it when it flows by us on the Upper Arkansas as it moves down to Pueblo and points east from there,” Hamel said. “The bottom line is we will have adequate flows. We’re looking for a good season, and a long season, because of the supplementation of the voluntary flow management plan.”

The snowpack at the headwaters of the Colorado River came in at 18% above normal. Rafting on the Upper Colorado and the section through Glenwood Canyon typically account for about 100,000 rafting user days annually, making the Colorado the state’s second-busiest river for rafting, behind the Arkansas.

“It’s in good shape, and the reservoirs there are looking good,” Costlow said, adding that the water will begin to release in early June and rise at the end of that month. “There will be decent flows on most of the Colorado for July, August and September.”

Clear Creek, typically the state’s third-busiest rafting destination, also had above-average snowpack. Its headwaters are near Loveland Pass, and it flows through Georgetown, Idaho Springs and Golden before entering the South Platte near Commerce City.

Conditions in far southern Colorado are grim, however, with river basin snowpacks ranging from 27% below normal to 47% below. The Animas River, which originates near Silverton and flows through Durango, was 31% below normal, but Costlow said that may not be as dire for outfitters there as it might seem.

“I think they will go through Labor Day,” Costlow said. “Those late-summer, late-afternoon rains in late July and August, there’s just enough to feed the river to keep it flowing. I think they’ll do fine.”