To view all of the real-time water gauges on the Watauga River, click here.
The above U.S. Geological Survey gauge in Sugar Grove is located along Rominger Road and immediately downstream of the Cove Creek confluence with the Watauga River.
This real-time gauge measures the discharge of the river over the past week in cubic feet per second or cfs. When it rains, the cfs rises. During times of drought, the cfs lowers.
Recreational Use for Sugar Grove Gauge
Kayakers use the above graph for the expert-only Watauga Gorge run beyond the North Carolina/Tennessee state line.
The real-time gauge is located upstream of the put-in at Guy Ford Road near Bethel and reads low compared to gorge conditions because of feeder creeks downstream of the gauge
American Whitewater‘s page on this classic kayaking run states ideal flow range is from 250 to 400 with not many boaters willing to run it above 650.
As for the canoeing runs between the expert whitewater near Shull’s Mill Road/N.C. 105 and the gorge, Carolina Whitewater: A Paddler’s Guide to the Western Carolinas uses a gauge measured in feet and recommends the following:
- Minimum 1.95 ft from NC 105 bridge to NC 194 bridge at Valle Crucis
- Minimum 1.85 ft from NC 194 bridge to U.S. 321 bridge
- Minimum 1.85 ft from U.S. 321 bridge to Guy Ford Road
See the feet flood gauge further down in this article.
For the less adventurous, 90 cfs is enough flow to tube along the Watauga River near the Upper Watauga Gorge Park and not bottom out too much. However, I would recommend a higher flow, for what that’s worth.
For anglers around here, if water flow has increased to a point where wading is probably unsafe, the river probably has that “brown-water” effect from flash-like waters and the fishing likely wouldn’t be good.
N.C. Wildlife Resource Commission Mountain Fisheries Biologist Kin Hodges calls that effect “turbidity.”
Hodges recommends people planning trips to watch the online flow gauges to “avoid going right after any pronounced spikes in flow and focus on going when flows are as close to median flows as possible.”
Median flows for a particular day in history are noted with the triangle in the above discharge graph. That data goes back 80 years.
The U.S. Geological Survey website about the Sugar Grove gauge also has searchable data going back decades for precipitation levels, river height levels and cfs flow.
NWS Graph Measuring for Flood Stages
The National Weather Service uses data from the same Sugar Grove site to gauge river levels and flood stages. Not really used by kayakers, this graph measures the water levels in feet and delineates flood stages.
Here are some local effects of flooding at certain levels and lists of recent and historic crests of the river, according to the NWS:
- 5 feet: Several low water bridges begin to flood including Dewitt Barnett road 5.5 miles upstream and Hubert Thomas road 1.8 miles downstream from gage.
- 6 feet: Flooding begins on portions of Watauga River, upstream of Rominger Road
- 14 feet: Significant lowland flooding through the Valle Crucis area.
- 16 feet: Several buildings in the Valle Crucis area are affected by flood waters.
Historic Crests
- 29.60 ft on 08/13/1940
- 22.10 ft on 07/15/1916
- 21.90 ft on 09/17/2004
- 20.46 ft on 01/14/1995
- 18.26 ft on 11/19/2003
- 17.64 ft on 08/17/1994
- 17.14 ft on 02/13/1966
- 16.86 ft on 10/05/1995
- 16.77 ft on 11/06/1977
- 16.60 ft on 01/08/1998
Recent Crests
- 8.85 ft on 05/21/2020
- 6.71 ft on 04/30/2020
- 10.24 ft on 04/13/2020
- 8.40 ft on 02/07/2020
- 10.59 ft on 01/12/2020
- 15.40 ft on 06/09/2019
- 11.19 ft on 04/19/2019
- 9.70 ft on 12/28/2018
- 9.78 ft on 12/21/2018
- 13.70 ft on 10/11/2018
To view all of the real-time water gauges on the Watauga River, click here.