The Vigil Network
Ditch Creek: Report

Data Files:

• Report
• Table 1
• Table 2
• Sketch of Ditch Creek (47 KB)
• Cross Section at Traverse 2 (38 KB)
• Cross Section at Traverse 1 (33 KB)
• Data Plot (39 KB)
• Ditch Creek Site Index Card
• Vigil Network Home Page

Prepared and surveyed by Luna B. Leopold with the assistance of Brad Stelfox. Address the Teton Science School, Kelly, Wyoming USA.

To access these data, The Vigil Network, U.S. Geological Survey, Denver Colorado or Laboratory of Geomorphology University of Uppsala, Uppsala, Sweden.

The location is on Ditch Creek, a tributary to the Snake River in Jackson Hole Wyoming. The river flows through the grounds of the Teton Science School within the boundaries of Teton National Park. The road to the school is north from the village of Kelly about three miles.

The log buildings of the school are on a flat terrace south of the creek. A map of the creek is shown on Figure 1 and is of the reach directly north of the school.

The terrace on which the school is built is apparently glacial outwash. It stands about 20 to 25 feet above the stream and there are two terraces at lower elevation, one about 10 feet and the other about 4 feet above the river. These are surely Holocene in age. The terraces can be seen on the crossections of Figure 2.

On Figure 2 is an enlarged plot of the crossection of the channel and the drawing includes a plot of crossectional area as a function of elevation. The crossection in Figure 2 is the Traverse 2 on the map. Traverse 1 is the crossection upstream along a painted rock line discussed later.

The crossections are referenced to more than one datum. The main datum is Bench Mark 1, a permanent BM given an elevation of 100.00 feet. There is an enamel staff gage in feet on the right bank 20 feet downstream of the crossection. The zero of the gage plate is at elevation 92.15 feet relative to the main bench mark. There was also a temporary meter stick gage in the center of the stream just downstream of the crossection. Its relation to the others is shown below.

BM 1 is 2 nails driven into the east side of the trunk of a spruce tree which in 1989 had a diameter of 5 inches DBH. The nails are 2 feet above ground surface. Going south along the crossection another BM consists of 2 nails driven on the east side of a 5 inch spruce tree and on the line of the crossection. This is called BM 2 and has an elevation of 98.70 feet; it is located 88.7 feet south along the crossection. There are two spruce trees and the BM is on the east one of the two.

To reproduce the crossection it is planned to start at BM 2 and measure 88.7 feet to the zero point. From this the remainder of the section can be found.

The stationing of the crossection begins at BM 1 and is called plus to the north and minus to the south.

The tentative elevation of the bankfull stage is elevation 94.0 where the area is 32 sq. ft., v = 4 ft/sec, Q = 128 cfs, gage ht. 1.73 ft.

The equations for the hydraulic geometry are tentatively as follows.

gh = 0.48Q^0.30 good for q = 1 - 120 cfs

w (ft) = 19Q^0.07 q = 7 - 120

v (ft/sec) = 0.51Q^0.43 q = 7 - 120

d (ft) = 0.08 Q^0.52 q = 10 - 120

These equations are derived from velocity taken by floats, area by measuring off the surveyed crossection. Further data are needed.

Conversion from the temporary centimeter staff gage to the enamel gage plate was tied to the permanent datum by the survey that showed the top of the temporary staff was at 118.5 cm and had an elevation of 95.98 feet.

Measurement July 26, 1989, (LBL book 65 p 90) gh = 0.90 ft. At 8:50 am the gage plate read 0.94 ft and the temporary gage stick 31.0 cm. Area was computed from the plotted crossection.

The channel in this reach has a slope of 0.016, it has moderate confinement, sinuosity of 1.2, w/d 25/2.4, Rosgen class C1.

Two surveys are the original condition on July 12, 1989. They refer to the crossection Traverse 1 and 2, the former being a painted rock line across the large gravel bar. They both are tied to the datum of BM 1.

TRAVERSE 2

Traverse 1 painted rock line. This traverse begins at a beaver-cut stump about 175 feet upstream of the BM 1 and where the big gravel bar ends against the low terrace. The stump is 14 inches in diameter. This survey begins 21 feet from the stump, and the stump is at the south end of the traverse.

TRAVERSE 1

Station 114 is on top of the silt bank which is the top of the middle terrace.

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