Bear

As of yesterday, all of the water in the Bear river near Grace, ID is now in Black Canyon for at least the next 2-3 years while PacifiCorp replaces the flow line to the turbines. The flows will be dictated by natural runoff and Bear Lake releases for irrigation. In a normal year that means 900-1200cfs in the river during the summer months with the larger flows during July when the temperature is the hottest. Currently the flows are roughly 170+ cfs, but should begin climbing soon and are expected to reach 900cfs some time in May this year due to the abnormally warm and dry winter. River flows are available on the PacifiCorp flow phone 1-800-547-1501 and website https://www.pacificorp.com/community/recreation/water-release/bear-river/below-grace-dam.html

The remaining 2024 Bear River Black Canyon recreational release schedule has been revised as follows:

April 26-28: no change.
May 11 & 12: canceled.
September 14 & 15 – new releases in exchange for May cancellation.

American Whitewater, PacifiCorp, and the Idaho state agencies continue to work towards making an annual fall release permanent. Thanks for your patience, and enjoy the 2024 fall release!

Due to releases being cancelled this spring due to ice and cold temperatures, there will be releases on September 9, 10, 16, and 17 this year (2023). Enjoy!

UPDATE 5/24/23: RELEASES HAVE BEEN DELAYED ONE DAY SO PACIFICORP WILL BEGIN BRINGING UP THE WATER FRIDAY MORNING AND THE RELEASE WILL NOW BE FRIDAY AFTERNOON AND ALL DAY SATURDAY! AW got a heads up from PacifiCorp that they will be releasing about 800+/- cfs into the Bear River's Black Canyon on Thursday (5/25/23) afternoon and all day Friday (5/26) this week (will be back to minimum flows on the weekend). Good opportunity for those who want to get familiar with the run with a little less punch.

American Whitewater has agreed to PacifiCorp’s proposal to cancel next weekend’s (4/15 & 16) Bear Black Canyon Rec release. There are a number of concerns/reasons, including low boater attendance in previous highwater years, still lots of ice in the river, winter conditions and safety concerns for plant operators. The April 28-30th is currently on track and we may have some higher flows than the 900 cfs minimum due to run-off. Additionally, with the tremendous snow pack combined with one of the three turbines at Grace Powerplant still being off line, there should be boatable flows in Black Canyon during May/June. Lastly, a second weekend of Fall Releases is likely (date hasn’t been determined), but, this will be in addition to the currently scheduled September 9 & 10 weekend Rec flows.

The March 2023 releases have been cancelled due to sub-freezing temperatures and ice build-up. We'll reschedule them!

2023 Releases are: 03/25/23, 03/26/23, 04/15/23, 04/16/23, 04/28/23, 04/29/23, 04/30/23, 09/09/23, 09/10/23

The last 2022 Bear Black Canyon release scheduled for this weekend (May 14 & 15) has been moved to September 10 & 11th. This shift was made possible by delays in rebuilding of one of the three turbines, and is supported by AW and the vast majority of paddlers that prefer September releases over May releases. Please spread the word.

Friendly reminder, the original release schedule changed: removing the May 15-16, 2021 event and adding the September 11-12, 2021 event.

So the official 2021 dates are:
March 27 & 28, 2021
April 10 & 11, 2021
April 30–May 2, 2021
September 11 & 12, 2021

Grace Generating Unit Outage - We continue to have an outage of one of the three generating units in the Grace Powerhouse. This outage will likely continue through 2021. During the upcoming irrigation season, water that would have passed through this generating unit will be in the Black Canyon bypassing the Grace Powerhouse. What this means for Black Canyon flows is that during the peak of the irrigation season when we typically see 200 cfs or so in the Black Canyon we will see that 200 cfs plus up to 330 cfs. In addition: Grace Hydro Wood Stave Flowline Maintenance - Typically this happens in May. This work requires a plant outage so flows will be in the bypassed reach. I’ll provide update when I have final dates.

2020 Releases RESCHEDULED after being cancelled because of Covid-19. There will be Black Canyon releases on August 29 & 30, and September 12 & 13. This is a special opportunity for a number of reasons. Enjoy!

CANCELLED release. There will be no 6/6/20 release because of unforeseen water delivery issues. We'll get this day in late summer now. Enjoy then!

From the power company: We have an unplanned outage of one of the three generating units in the Grace Powerhouse. At this time a return to service date is unknown. During the upcoming irrigation season, water that would have passed through this generating unit will be in the Black Canyon bypassing the Grace Powerhouse. What this means for Black Canyon flows is that during the peak of the irrigation season when we typically see 200 cfs or so in the Black Canyon we will see that 200 cfs plus the 330 cfs from this unit for total Black Canyon flows of approximately 530 cfs.