Horseshoe Dam, AZ

Drowned Rat

Captain
Joined
Jan 20, 2004
Messages
3,070
I took these rare photos of water coming over the dam at Horseshoe Lake today. Normally the lake is nothing but a trickle of water running through a mud flat. With all the rain we've had here lately, it's now 100% and they're having to release water over the dam which doubles as a spillway. The lake has another emergency spillway just in case, but the architecture on this one is a bit unique. Here is a picture of the dam itself.

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Here you can see that there is a walkway that goes behind the waterfall so you can cross the river. Cool huh! It was so loud here that even yelling at the top of your lungs, the person standing 5 feet away couldn't hear a thing you said.

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Here is the normal through pipe that releases water from the bottom of the lake. Normally this is the only thing that flows and it usually pours out about 20 feet and splashes to the ground. Today this 10 foot pipe was shooting a column of water about 150 feet out into the river. The ground was shaking here. I Was dropping 20 to 30 lb. boulders into the stream and when it would hit it, you would hear a low WHUMP! and the rock was gone with a huge splash that shot out with the column. Really awesome display of power.

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And finally a picture from just downstream.

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gonefishie

Commander
Joined
Jul 28, 2004
Messages
2,624
Re: Horseshoe Dam, AZ

awesome! wonder what's the water level in places like Mead and Powell. It sure has been a wet season, lakes are filled everywhere.
 
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