by Robert Marcos, photojournalist
We spend so much time focused on the Colorado River that we forget there are other major rivers in the American West. During a road trip to Idaho last week I was able to swim in the Sacramento River one day and in the Snake River the next. (I always wear a mask, snorkel, and fins, which makes it easier to breathe and helps me to be more aware of my surroundings).
I entered the Snake River from a boat ramp at Celebration Park in Melba Utah. The park protects a 10,000 year old petroglyph site that was created by ancestors of the Shoshone, Bannock, and Northern Paiute people. It’s amazing to gaze upon these glyphs and consider that some of America’s first inhabitants stood exactly where you are standing, and then invested hours of their valuable time creating these artistic designs. Click here for a short video.
Meanwhile – the Snake River is 1,078 miles long and it originates at Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming. The Snake carries an average of 36 million acre feet of water across Idaho, Oregon, then finally joins the Columbia River at Burbank, Washington.
The water in the Snake River comes from three primary water sources –
High-Alpine Snowpack and Glacial Runoff.1
The absolute headwaters start at Two Oceans Pass in Yellowstone National Park. Rills and streams fed by melting winter snowpack flow into Grand Teton National Park, filling Jackson Lake. This seasonal snowmelt from the Teton and Gros Ventre mountain ranges provides the initial high-volume push of water every spring.
The Eastern Snake River Plain Aquifer 2
As the river enters southern Idaho, it crosses a massive, porous volcanic plain underlain by fractured basalt lava. Rivers that flow down from northern mountains often sink completely underground into this aquifer. This water travels sub-surface and re-emerges directly into the Snake River through colossal spring complexes like Thousand Springs. These springs act as a natural reservoir, pumping steady, massive amounts of cold water into the river even during bone-dry summer months.
Massive Downstream Tributaries 3
While the river is physically very long, it actually accumulates over half of its total water volume in the lower quarter of its run. As it cuts through Hells Canyon toward Washington, it absorbs massive influxes of water from major rivers:
• The Henry’s Fork
• The Salmon River (features a 16,000 year old paleo-indian site at Cooper’s Ferry)
• The Clearwater River
By the time the Snake River empties into the Columbia River in Washington, these combined mountain, spring, and tributary sources make it one of the largest hydrologic resources in the United States. 4
Cool!