Yes, I swim in, paddle and play in the Poudre River.

No, I do not swim in the Poudre River during spring runoff. Not if I can help it at least. As we've seen recently, one slip into the river can be deadly.

You can find articles on this website that talk about tubing the river, swimming in the river, whitewater rafting and more. I just wanted to make sure that we mentioned that the potential danger of injury is much higher during the spring runoff, especially one that is as intense as this year's will be.

Spring rains combined with one of the deepest snowpacks we've seen in years have the river in a swollen state, and it probably won't subside until July.

How long the runoff lasts depends in large part on the heat, and the amounts of rain (or snow at higher altitudes) we see.

In the meantime, if the river looks swollen, if the water is brown and swirling, it will be better to swim in a pool until the water level calms down.

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