{"id":53629,"date":"2020-06-01T16:41:16","date_gmt":"2020-06-01T22:41:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/kayakers-rafters-blast-extended-closure-of-clear-creek\/"},"modified":"2020-06-01T22:41:16","modified_gmt":"2020-06-01T22:41:16","slug":"kayakers-rafters-blast-extended-closure-of-clear-creek","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/kayakers-rafters-blast-extended-closure-of-clear-creek\/","title":{"rendered":"Kayakers, rafters blast extended closure of Clear Creek"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"A
A group of kayakers play in the rapids of Clear Creek in Clear Creek Canyon near Golden. The river pounds for 20 miles through the narrow canyon between Idaho Falls and Golden with many rapids that are rated Class V. Although Colorado Highway 6 travels near the creek for much of it\u2019s journey the canyon provides a wild get away for kayaking, rafting, climbing, mountain biking and fishing that is close to Denver.<\/span>Dean Krakel\/Special to The Colorado Sun<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Jefferson County, like the rest of Colorado, reopened restaurants and loosened restrictions on people\u2019s movement this week. But Clear Creek, one of its most popular draws,<\/p>\n

Sheriff Jeff Shrader extended a ban on all swimming, tubing and kayaking in the creek that bisects the 580,000-resident county. That troubles the Front Range kayaking community that counts the Class II to Class V whitewater in Clear Creek as its backyard run.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf any other stretch of river was closed anywhere in the state \u2026 if there were other recreation bans in that canyon, this would make sense. But this just seems so arbitrary,\u201d said Hattie Johnson, the Southern Rockies stewardship director for American Whitewater. American Whitewater and Colorado Whitewater sent a letter to Shrader and Golden Police Chief Bill Kilpatrick in early April, shortly after the county issued a ban on all water activities in Clear Creek.<\/p>\n

The letter expressed concern about the lack of an end date for the closure order, noting that Front Range kayakers paddle the creek every spring as snow melts and that the creek\u2019s proximity to the Front Range allows them to follow state guidelines by recreating near their homes. \u201cSocial distancing from a kayak or raft on Clear Creek is just as reasonable as on a trail,\u201d read the April 10 letter. \u201cWe have a concern that not defining an end or reassessment date of the closure will lead to an unnecessary continuation of this policy once other use restrictions have been lifted and the paddling season is well underway.\u201d<\/p>\n

Their fears were realized this week when the county extended the closure through June 25.<\/p>\n

The extension essentially nixed the kayaking season on Clear Creek, which fades as flows ebb to a mere trickle in midsummer.<\/p>\n

Other counties have asked for and received variances from the state health department, including ones that allow for river recreation on the Arkansas River in Chaffee County and the Eagle River in Eagle County.<\/p>\n

Read more at The Colorado Sun<\/a><\/p>\n

The Colorado Sun is a reader-supported, journalist-owned news outlet exploring issues of statewide interest. Sign up for a newsletter and read more at coloradosun.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jefferson County\u2019s sheriff cites crowding on Boulder Creek<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":53630,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[685,28,1799],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-53629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-coronavirus-covid-19","tag-headlines","tag-rafting"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53629"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53629\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53629"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=53629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}