Fall Floods of 2012

This year we had the worst fall i've ever experienced. After the 2nd coldest July on record it rained for most of the rest of summer and well into the fall. On top of that, after labor day weekend we had a series of hurricane strength wind storms that blew down or damaged a measurable percentage of the total tree count in Anchorage. I still managed to get out and get about 3 good hikes in, and i'll get to those in time.

On September 9th it was a perfect day in Anchorage. I decided to go out towards the end of the Matanuska Valley and climb Sheep Mountain. Lo and behold, when i got there i was in a blizzard, on the highway, on Labor Day weekend! Seriously disappointed, i took my time getting back to town, checking out side roads that i'd always neglected. In between the Matanuska Glacier and Chickaloon the road was out of the way of the blizzard and i was able to get some pretty cool pictures of the crazy stuff that was happening in the mountains.

The Floods

Seward, Talkeetna and the Matsu experienced some real flooding during the barrage of storms we experienced. Anchorage was not so bad (as far as floods went) but Campbell Creek, which winds through town as it makes it's way down from the mountains, did overflow it's banks, and was much much higher than i've ever seen it.

During the flooding i walked most of the creeks' length starting at North Bicentennial Park and ending where the creek flows into Campbell Lake. I already posted most of those pictures on facebook but later i went back to take comparison pictures in a few areas. The following pictures were taken first on September 20th during the flood. The water crested during the night and i went back out early on September 21st for another look around the Science Center area.

The "after" shots i took were on October 2nd. It took that long for the water to go back to normal levels. Even at that point the water was a little high, so i went back on Oct. 23rd and took the shots that are icy. It was 16 degrees that morning but hadn't really snowed.

This is a little park just south of where the creek crosses Dowling Road. I didn't come by here until after the flood had passed it's peak. There's a footbridge to nowhere here, and the creek actually ate away the foundation of one side of it, causing it to partly collapse.

All along the length of Campbell Creek the water ate away at it's banks and swallowed a bunch of trees. Between these two shots it has eaten more of the bank away. I had half expected this tree to be carried away, like many others.

The area above was one of the most impressive flooded areas in the woods around the Science Center. In the top picture the secondary stream in the background is not supposed to be there at all. The tree in the foreground in the water was knocked down during the wind storms. In the second picture there is a newly created gravel island in the foreground and on this day i realized that the creek appears to have permanently created a new channel over there in the background. In the bottom image, the water has risen again due to an ice damn. Also, in the icy picture the entire background used to be solid ground. The stream originally went around all that you can see here, and swept around to the right outside the picture frame. The new gravel island is probably made from the movement of those sediments, and has been placed where there used to be an eddy that was a good spot to watch salmon. There are several new large gravel bars on the creek. They can be identified because the rocks that make them up are unsorted.
A continuation of the flooding on the left side of the previous set. This new "stream" was part of the floodwater moving through the forest. The second picture shows sand and stuff that was deposited over the forest floor. Both trees were knocked down in the storm. If you follow the tree in the foreground and turn left, you will see the scene below.

Another 3 image set just downstream from the last set. The long tree was knocked down in the storm, and it snagged that big trunk in the water as it floated past in the flood. Also, the water in the foreground is not supposed to be there. In the second image the water has receded and new gravel bars are causing it to run head on into the far bank, creating a bit of whitewater as it eats that stuff away. I was surprised to see the ice dam in the last pictures causing the stream to rise again and freeze. An interesting unforeseen consequence of the flooding is that all the new trees in the water are creating more surfaced for ice to cling too. We usually don't see so many ice damns until deeper into the winter.

Another part of the same area where the creek has overflowed it's banks.

This is taken from the Dogsled bridge near the Science Center and Airstrip. At it's highest the water was eating away the foundations of the bridge.

This is Fishers favorite spot to chew on a big stick. In the first picture there used to be a long dead tree that you could sit on and another that you could walk across the stream on. Those have been there for as long as i've been here (11 years) but they were swept away and actually caused a big logjam a little downstream. The next morning the water was even higher and the park crew had removed the stairs, which was cool because i didn't even know they could do that. In the second picture you can see a newly fallen tree in the upper left corner. I guess i'll have to use that to cross on in the future. Fisher was happy because there were loads of never before chewed sticks all over the beach.

This is over by the intersection of Dimond and Victor where the greenway trail ends as the creek crosses under the road and into the lake. Quite a ways upstream the creek flowed over it's banks and flooded the entire forest up to the road. Here it came out of the forest, crossed the trail and reconnected to the main watercourse. It ate away a good portion of the trail before it dried up.