DENVER -- The Bureau of Land Management is warning people about the danger of swift-moving water on the Colorado River after a Denver man who was apparently intoxicated drowned over the weekend.

Jesse Lee Melvin was reportedly drunk when he went for a swim without a life jacket in the Black Rocks section of the Colorado River not far from the Utah border.

The Bureau of Land Management said the Colorado River was running more than 16,000 cubic feet per second over the weekend and was about 58 degrees.

In another instance, a woman was swept away in the fast-moving creek near Steamboat Springs over the weekend. She has not been found.

“This is our dangerous time of year,” said Jonathan Ashford, a spokesman for the Golden Fire Department. “You've got the melt going on up high that's obviously raising levels down here. The currents are very swift.”

Firefighters from all over the country have been practicing swift-water rescue training techniques in Golden this week as part of a diving program in partnership with Dive Rescue International.

Ashford said they are techniques they hope they will not have to put to use this season, and urged anyone who is not trained to professionally navigate rapids to stay away from Colorado creeks and rivers, at least for the next month or so.

“If folks want to come out and recreate, we'd rather see them do it later in the year or earlier in the summer,” said Ashford.

But at Denver’s Confluence Park, where the rapids are quick and cold, some people simply were not listening.

“It feels like you kind of lose your breath because of all the water going in your face,” said Colt Wiebold, who was floating the creek with friends. “It sucks us under. It kind of feels like you're drowning.”

Wiebold and his friends wore life jackets and brought along someone who knows CPR.

Ashford said flotation devices can save lives, not just in rapidly-moving water, but also in areas that appear calm.

“Even areas of the creek that look very calm, very smooth on top, there's still a strong current underneath that can easily swipe a person's legs out from under them and carry them downstream,” he said.

With that in mind, some parents at Confluence Park restricted their children to a shallow section of water. Others confined their children to the shore.

“I'll let her stay by the edge, but I've just been real careful with explaining to her that the water will take you down the river,” said Haley Torres about her daughter Pryce.

Ashford said people should not only watch children closely, but also keep an eye on pets.

“Just to make sure we're not in a situation where one person or one animal ends up in the water. Then you've got an owner or a parent going in after them and now we have two rescues to try to accomplish.”