PIUTE FARMS WATERFALL, Utah — The muddy San Juan River plunged over a waterfall on its final push toward Lake Powell, trapping endangered fish in the whorl of driftwood, plastic foam and trash that heaved in the eddy below.
This sedimentary hurdle in the river’s path didn’t exist before the government dammed the Colorado River downstream at Glen Canyon in 1963, creating Lake Powell. Water backed up past this remote expanse of rippling Navajo Nation desert shore, a point accessible by horse, boat or high-clearance vehicle. Decades of silt piled up below the surface. Then amid drought and overuse, the still water receded and left the San Juan, a tributary of the Colorado, to slice a new course through the mud and create the waterfall.