page_title: Course of the Colorado River
section_title: Colorado
hierarchical_section_title: Course of the Colorado River / Colorado
caption_attribution_description: A view of the Colorado wine region of Grand Valley AVA
context_page_description: The Colorado River is a major river of the western United States and northwest Mexico in North America. Its headwaters are in the Rocky Mountains where La Poudre Pass Lake is its source. Located in north central Colorado it flows southwest through the Colorado Plateau country of western Colorado, southeastern Utah and northwestern Arizona where it flows through the Grand Canyon. It turns south near Las Vegas, Nevada, forming the Arizona–Nevada border in Lake Mead and the Arizona–California border a few miles below Davis Dam between Laughlin, Nevada and Needles, California before entering Mexico in the Colorado Desert. Most of its waters are diverted into the Imperial Valley of Southern California. In Mexico its course forms the boundary between Sonora and Baja California before entering the Gulf of California.
context_section_description: The Colorado River rises on the Continental Divide at La Poudre Pass, in Rocky Mountain National Park, about 40 km (25 mi) north of Lake Granby, as a tiny stream draining a wet meadow. At the river's headwater, the Continental Divide forms the boundary between the Gulf of Mexico and Pacific Ocean watersheds of North America, between Colorado's Grand and Larimer counties, and the northern boundary of Rocky Mountain National Park.
  The river's first diversion is here at its headwater. The Grand Ditch redirects water from the Never Summer Mountains, which would have flowed into the Colorado River, to instead flow across the divide through La Poudre Pass to irrigate farmland to the east.
  About a mile (1.5 km) downstream from its source, the Colorado River has carved its first canyon, the narrow, deep Little Yellowstone Canyon. It then flows through the broad Kawuneeche Valley, where it is joined by U.S. Highway 34, which will roughly parallel it to the town of Granby. It finally exits Rocky Mountain National Park, flowing into Shadow Mountain Lake and then into Lake Granby, which are portions of the Colorado-Big Thompson Project, a large trans-basin water storage and delivery project that diverts water from the Colorado River under the Front Range mountains to provide an agricultural and municipal water supply for the northern Front Range and plains of Colorado.
  Starting in Granby, the river is roughly paralleled by U.S. Highway 40 to the town of Kremmling, and by the tracks of the Union Pacific Railroad until about the Utah border, carrying the Amtrak California Zephyr passenger train. The canyons and valleys of the Upper Colorado River are among the scenic attractions for passengers on this rail route.
  Just downstream from Granby, the Colorado is joined by the Fraser River and flows through Windy Gap Reservoir, where more water is diverted to the Front Range via the Windy Gap Project. At Hot Sulphur Springs the river flows through Byers Canyon and then is joined by the Williams Fork from the left and Muddy Creek from the right shortly thereafter. Just below Kremmling it is joined by the Blue River from the left before flowing through Gore Canyon, famous for its challenging rapids for the sport of whitewater rafting, and where it drops significantly until State Highway 131 crosses at the village of State Bridge, where the Piney River joins from the left. The Eagle River joins from the left in the town of Dotsero, from where Interstate 70 will parallel the Colorado almost until it enters Utah.
  Below Dotsero the Colorado flows through Glenwood Canyon, emerging at the city of Glenwood Springs where the swift flowing Roaring Fork River, its second largest tributary in Colorado joins from the left. West of Glenwood Springs, the Colorado runs through a wider valley along the northern foothills of the Grand Mesa, passing the towns of New Castle, Silt, Rifle and De Beque. It then flows through De Beque Canyon, where it is joined by Plateau Creek.
  The Colorado then enters the Grand Valley, where its waters are used to irrigate over 40,000 acres (16,000 ha) of agricultural land. Here it passes Grand Junction, the largest town on the upper Colorado, where it is joined by the Gunnison River, its largest tributary within Colorado and second largest overall. The Gunnison drains from the northern San Juan Mountains, Elk Mountains and Sawatch Range – which includes Colorado's highest peak, 14,440-foot (4,400 m) Mount Elbert – and carves the Black Canyon of the Gunnison before joining the Colorado. In the Grand Valley the Colorado becomes a meandering river in contrast to the steep mountain canyons above Grand Junction. It ranges from 200 to 1,200 ft (60 to 370 m) wide and from 6 to 30 ft (2 to 9 m) in depth with occasional deeper areas.
  From there the Colorado turns northwest, past Fruita and entering Ruby Canyon as it approaches the Colorado Plateau. It turns southwest once again just before entering Utah.
caption: Colorado River in the Grand Valley
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