If you haven’t been to the Kern River, you may not know that it’s a stunner.
Make the harrowing drive up Highway 178 east from Bakersfield, California, and you’ll be rewarded with views of tall, green trees, glittering water and giant boulders that look like sculpture.
On parts of the river, the rocky rapids make white-water rafting a summertime draw, and lower down, where the water appears calmer, campgrounds are a destination for families looking for an affordable getaway.
But that, rescuers and experts have long said, is where you can get into trouble.
“The problem is that the speed with which people drown is just so fast,” Zac Boyd of the Kern County Fire Department told me. “Once they’re in the water, the life expectancy drops.”
A spring of heavy rains and cooler-than-normal temperatures means the river has been rushing. Since Memorial Day, local officials said, at least four people have drowned in the river, and an 11-year-old girl remains missing after being lost in the currents more than a month ago.
Still, Boyd said his department, as well as the Kern River Conservancy and the patchwork of public safety agencies that operate in the area, have worked hard to prevent accidents. They’ve recorded a public service announcement and partnered with rafting outfitters to provide loaner life vests.
But Boyd said he’s found the most effective tack is simply approaching campers to tell them about danger.
Maybe you believe you are a strong enough swimmer to keep your head above water. Or perhaps you think that tying a rope around your children’s waists as a tether will prevent them from being dragged off by unseen currents.
Boyd — were he to meet you at, say, a campground in Keysville — would politely disabuse you of those notions. “It’s something that a sign can’t do,” he said.
(There are also signs, including a famous one that has been periodically updated with the river’s death toll since 1968. It’s up to almost 300.)
It’s tough to draw a line back to those prevention efforts, but officials say that despite this year’s high water they have been less busy than they anticipated. And the number of deaths has been lower than in past high-water years.
Back in 2011, I reported for The Bakersfield Californian on what was among the river’s deadliest summers. Using coroner’s reports, my then-colleagues and I counted 15 drownings that year.
In 2017, Sgt. Zack Bittle of the Kern County Sheriff’s Office told me, the grim count was 16. In June of that year, the lower Kern River, where most swimmers take their chances, was flowing at about 5,400 cubic feet per second, according to Army Corps of Engineers gauge data.
This year, the river reached about the same flow in mid-June and has dropped since. But summer is far from over, and Bittle warned there is still a risk: Even this week’s flows of roughly 2,500 cubic feet per second can be treacherous.
So, with all that in mind, Boyd said his advice for enjoying the river is pretty straightforward:
— Wear a life vest if you’re anywhere near the water — even if you’re just wading or sitting on rocks with your feet in the water. The rocks are slippery.
— Watch your children — don’t let them splash in shallows.
— Don’t try to anchor yourself to the shore with ropes, and don’t use pool toys.
— If you want to enter the river, go with a trained guide.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.