Station no. 09 (the Narrows to Zig Bend)

DOWNSTREAM VIEWS:

First, a downstream comparison from one of our first photos of the Narrows, taken in 1987 (4 years after the October 1983 floods had scoured the canyon) on the left. Note that the floor of the canyon on the left bank remains largely scoured 4 years later, in the photo at right. On the right bank, some of the cottonwoods there were undermined in the January 1993 flood and by June had fallen to the canyon floor.

December 1987 .................................................... June 1993

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Interestingly, the same small trees on the left bank, just above the Narrows, are present in both of these photos. A closer view of these Narrows trees was shown in this 1993 photo:

June 1993

Here you can see some of the debris left against these trees. However, in the left background are a group of higher trees -- Sycamores -- and these were all severely damaged by this flood, perhaps as waters rebounded off the Narrows wall. These Sycamores have subsequently all died (see some of the images in no. 08), probably due to the severe trauma of this flood.

Following the 1993 flood, riparian trees sprouted strongly in the flat above the Narrows, as shown in the line of Willows in January, 1996 at left below. By April 2000, at right below, the earlier line of trees is at left, while another line has developed to the right.

 

January 1996 ........................................................... April 2000

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Viewed from a position somewhat further upstream, the April 2000 image below left bears comparison with one taken in November 2002, at below right:

April 2000 .......................................................... November 2002

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UPSTREAM VIEWS

The images below show this vegetation contrast even more clearly in a comparison of a 1993 image, left, and a 2002 image, right. Though not taken from exactly the same place, the two locations are very close -- the small red arrows in both images point to the big cottonwood at the promontory inside the Zig, and the rock formation at right-central in the left image is also visible (though shadowed) somewhat further to the right in the right-hand image. The landscapes in the background -- though almost entirely obscured by new riparian vegetation in 2002 -- are very similar in shape.

June 1993 .......................................................... November 2002

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