Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
DUCHESNE — Sixteen years after they were closed to the public, it's finally safe to use the restrooms at Upper Stillwater Dam again.
The restrooms, parking lot, boat ramp and interpretive kiosk at the dam 31 miles north of Duchesne have reopened for public use, the U.S. Forest Service announced Wednesday.
The facilities were closed by the Forest Service in 1997 so the Bureau of Reclamation could stabilize portions of the mountain that were removed for construction of the dam.
“Although I think that the public has been frustrated because of the long wait for the ramp and parking area to be opened, there really wasn’t much more that we could effectively do to mitigate the falling rock," said Johnn Sterzer, an outdoor recreation planner for the Bureau of Reclamation.
The mountain has shed most of the rock that was loosened when its faces were cut to accommodate the dam, officials said.
The bureau also spent more than $1 million installing netting over nearly vertical rock faces and building rock-walled structures called gabions that are up to 12 feet high in some places and up to 500 feet long. Another 6 feet of chain-link fence was put atop of the gabion wall to catch any "high-jumping" rocks.
Related:
New waterfall a spectacular sight
Utah has a spectacular new waterfall. Strictly speaking, it's a not a natural phenomenon, but it certainly shows nature's power and beauty.The agency also repaved the road from the bridge at the base of the dam to the parking area and boat ramp, re-fenced the perimeter around the parking area and replaced settling concrete near the restrooms.
Motorized and non-motorized watercraft are allowed on the reservoir. However, people will have to walk their boat between two 18-inch-tall fence posts that are about 6 feet apart, then carry the craft about 200 feet down the paved parking area to reach the water on the boat ramp.
Special rules have also been developed for boating on the reservoir. Large numbers have been painted on the boat ramp at an elevation of 8,157 feet. The same elevation is marked on the dam.
When water levels are below the markings, boating is allowed. If the water is above the line, boating is prohibited due to the potential for watercraft to go over the spillway in the center of the dam.
The Bureau of Reclamation has said it will attempt to maintain water levels at or below the 8,157-foot elevation mark through Labor Day each year.
Upper Stillwater Dam is North America's longest roller-compacted concrete gravity dam at 2,650 feet long. It holds 35,230 acre-feet of water, extends for more than a mile back into the head of Rock Creek Canyon near the edge of the High Uintas Wilderness Area and its reservoir is stocked with rainbow, brown and brook trout.
