We didn’t have to wait too long to test the earthen dam that we built to stop the flooding. A couple of weeks after building the dam, we had two days in a row of constant heavy rain (at least several inches per day).
The completed dam in the dry before the test.
Click through to see how the dam handled the heavy rain.
Following the earlier flooding, we decided to try to build a small dam to try to block the water, rocks, leaves and other debris from flooding out into the pastures.
Here is a reminder of what it looked like during the flooding with water and debris flowing out from the woods.
The creek flooding out into the pastures.
We stacked up the logs again in the water channel where it floods out of the woods. This time, instead of just stacks of logs, we put a metal post behind the logs and covered them with a couple feet of dirt and rocks. Hopefully the post and earthen dam will help keep the logs in place and divert the water and debris.
Close-up of the “dam” with metal post holding the logs in place.
Click through for more pictures and details.
Earlier this spring, we had a period of heavy rain combined with melting snow. This led to the increased volume of water over our waterfall.
However, it was too much water for the small creek bed to handle within its banks. The creek burst over its banks at the bottom of the mountain and flooded out into the pastures.
There was some minor flooding the prior year in the same location so I had attempted to block the channel that flooded with piles of logs from downed trees to divert the water away from the pastures. It didn’t work.
There was so much water that it simply pushed all of the logs out of the channel into the path behind the pastures. It even pushed some of the logs several hundred feet away.
The creek flooding out into the pastures.
The water also carried a lot of sticks, leaves, rocks and mud (also several golf balls!?). A lot of this debris was caught in the pasture fence. The debris blocked the bottom portion of the fence for at 3/4 of the way along the entire back fence line. In some places,the mud and leaves was more than 6 inches deep. Even with assistance from visitors, we haven’t been able to clear the entire fence line yet.
Water flooding out of the creek.
With a large snow storm late in the winter, there was a lot of snow that melted at once when the weather turned warmer. A large snow melt means that our waterfall would have a lot more water flowing over it than normal.
Here is the shot of the final approach to the waterfall.
Waterfall in the spring.
Here is a shot of the waterfall from the base of the falls.
Waterfall close-up.
Here is a video of the falls showing the increased water volume.
With the recent warm spell, all of our snow and ice melted in a few days. We decided to hike up to our 35 foot tall waterfall and see what it looked like with what may be the highest water flow rate of the year (and to preemptively answer a question we get asked a lot: yes, the waterfall is on our property).
Our waterfall in the spring.
There was more water coming over the falls than at any of our prior visits to the falls, but even with temperatures having reached over 70 degrees in early March, there was still some ice around the falls.
Click through to see more pictures and a video of the falls.