I've traveled around Texas a little over a month while on my extended vacation from normal life. I've now finally moved on to New Mexico but one thing that has been a real eye opener is how bad the drought in the south west actually is.
If you look on Google maps or if you are lucky enough to find a river on Apple maps it's a pretty good chance that the river is not there anymore, but only a dried up rocky or even grass filled basin.
I like to kayak so I make it a point to go check out various rivers and lakes and many are simply not there. Only dried up places that used to contain water. Yesterday I drove through Big Spring, Tx and stopped at the town's name sake, "big spring" it was just a pool of old stagnate water. As I drove toward New Mexico on 87 then finally 180 there were miles and miles of farm land but every river and lake along the way was completely dry.
A few random pics from my cell phone, to show what it's like..
This was Buchanan Lake just north west of Austin from 2 days ago as I left Austin for the last time. I'm driving in the lake bed and that is a public boat ramp, obviously built to lauch boats but it hasn't in quite some time..
Another view this time a bit of lake side property, don't leave the boats un-attended folks.
Excuse my finger, but this is a dam on a section of the Colorado River at Marble Falls.. Not much water moving over it..
Near the Max Starcke Dam on the Colorado River, a little section of Flatrock creek, again near Marble Falls, TX. I'm standing at the top of the waterfall.
water should at the very least be trickling over these rocks. Not much of a waterfall to be found now, just stagnate water.
Up river view of Flatrock creek
A section of bull creek in Austin, While it has water it's not much and this was one of the deeper sections. a bit more drought and this will be gone as well.
Canyon Lake, not far from San Marcos, but every single boat ramp on the lake is dried up. When I say dried up I mean the water line is usually hundreds of feet away from the boat ramps. Looking at the picture to give you an idea, normal water level would be near the treeline. It was about a 10ft drop to the water from where I stood and the water should of been almost if not at my level.
Keep in mind, that most of these lakes are actually dammed up parts of the Colorado river meaning they have water flowing through them but not enough to keep the lakes at their usual heights.
I just wanted to post this, because as someone from the East Coast where the water is plentiful, we don't see much of this. I personally do not see how farming operations in the south west will survive if this continues. There will be some serious issues if this drought continues on.
One other thing I'd like to mention, is the lakes and rivers that do have water often are filled with allege. The allege often kills fish and other natural habitats for wild life which create further problems.
The allege is largely due to fertilizers from both farming and that used on home lawns. On the east coast this is also a serious problem. People if you like your drinking water, stop wasting water and stop fertilizing your lawns. This isn't why I posted these pictures, but it's just something that should be said.