Rush Creek roars: Taking on Grant Lake’s spill

This post was written by Julia Runcie and Hannah Doherty, 2010 Mono Lake Interns.

Normally when the two of us head down to Rush Creek on Tuesday afternoons it’s an easy wade through ankle-deep water to reach the eastern bank. We hike through a willow thicket to a very old and overgrown utility road, and then the hunt begins for the six piezometers, or groundwater gauges, that hide in the brush on either side of the trail. At each piezometer we extend a tape measure deep into the throat of a PVC pipe until it hits water, and we record the depth. It’s often a struggle even to catch sight of the pool at the base of each pipe. But last week was different. As you may have heard, Grant Lake Reservoir, which is the primary source of flow for Rush Creek, recently spilled for the first time since 2006.

We noticed the change in volume right away: running across the road where we park our car was a six-inch wide stream that had never been there before. As we neared the creek’s edge we saw water rushing through the willows and over the path. And a few yards further on, at the spot where we normally ford the river, the channel was a roiling chute of water so deep we couldn’t see the bottom! We looked at each other.  Could we make it across?  Was it stupid even to try? The challenge was too tempting to turn down. We held our clipboard and tape measure over our heads and stepped into the water.

The current made itself felt immediately. Within steps we were almost waist-deep and barely balancing on the slippery rocks of the streambed. Julia was mere feet from the farther bank, opening her mouth to exclaim that she had made it, when down she went. Rush didn’t carry her far before she was able to swim to shore, but by the time she had climbed out onto the rocks Hannah was under too! The clipboard with our data sheets was soaked, but we managed to record that the groundwater level in all the piezometer pipes was significantly higher. We kept our footing on the way back over the channel and both scrambled ashore at last, safe, soggy, and sound.