“Running on empty” unfortunately is a very apt description of the Colorado River Basin, which long has had its water overcommitted. Today, the vast watershed that stretches from the mountains of Colorado to the Gulf of California and helps nourish some 30 million residents in the Southwest and Mexico is mired in a long-running drought that threatens to dramatically recast the already-arid region.

Castle Rock Cut is a popular short-cut route on Lake Powell that allows boaters to shorten the trip between the major Wahweap Marina and destinations uplake by a distance of 12 miles. Years of drought and falling water levels for the lake have made this shortcut unusable by boaters, so work is getting underway at to lower this channel by another twenty feet.

Though located in the arid landscape of the Colorado Plateau, the area around Canyonlands National Park attracts a lot of birds and provides valuable habitat for species such as the Mexican spotted owl. As such, the area has been identified as a "Globally Important Bird Area" by the National Audubon Society

While monsoonal rains have been dumping on the Southwest in recent days, they're far from enough to float some boats at Glen Canyon National Recreation Area.