Happy Father’s Day weekend everyone. Hopefully the weather stays nice so folks can get out and do something fun. One suggestion is to take a whitewater rafting trip. The water is at the perfect level right now for a thrill ride down rivers like the upper Yellowstone, Gallatin, Stillwater, the Alberton Gorge on the Clarks Fork, the Blackfoot and, of course, the big waves of the Lochsa River just over the hill from Lolo in Idaho. Last week I trekked to the upper Yellowstoneto get an idea of the river flows there. The water had just dropped enough to allow commercial rafters to take clients through Yankee Jim Canyon, a beautiful stretch of narrow water that runs parallel to Highway 89. The river levels continue to drop, making this stretch less scary but still a fun ride. To learn more, check out my story at The Billings Gazette’s website at: http://bit.ly/SDjavL

In other water news, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released their forecast for the rest of the spring and looking back at May they found that runoff didn’t hit the peak that they had forecast. That’s because much of Montana saw below normal precipitation in May. The result is that Fort Peck may not even fill up to the base of its flood control pool, the level where the Corps would like to start the spring. That means the Corps will release less water from the dam than it had planned and hopes, maybe by next year, to have the reservoir level back in line. You can read more about that story here: http://bit.ly/TOHD2q

(Written by Brett French-Outdoors Editor for the Billings Gazette)