The Colorado River Basin is arguably one of the most scenic, and geographically diverse watersheds in the United States. Draining parts of Wyoming, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico and California, the watershed covers more than 246,000 square miles. Beginning in La Poudre Pass in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, the Colorado River flows 1,450 miles to the Gulf of California, between Baja California and Sonora in Mexico. During its course the river and its tributaries cross through high mountain canyons and valleys in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming, and the expansive deserts of the Colorado Plateau, Mojave, Sonora. And throughout the human history in the area, it has sustained some of the most sophisticated cultures of Native Americans on the North American continent, a point given the life bringing nature of water, that I will touch on quite a bit in this post. Those cultures include the Archaic Indians, Ancestral Puebloans (Anasazi), Fremont, Hohokam, Mogollon, and Sinagua, as well as the cultures like the Hopi, Navajo and Zuni that emerged from them.
Take a 1,450 mile journey along the Colorado River – Denver Channel 7
John Wesley Powell: From the Depths of the Grand Canyon – National Geographic
What follows is a collection of the different landscape along the many tributaries of the Colorado River, organized somewhat by state, since inevitably tributaries don’t respect human administrative boundaries.
Wyoming
Green River
At 730 miles in length, the Green River is the largest tributary of the Colorado River. Draining parts of Wyoming, Utah, and Colorado, the river flows from its headwaters in the Wind River Mountain Range of Wyoming, through some of the country’s most beautiful canyon country, before converging with the Colorado River within the boundaries of Canyonlands National Park, east of Moab, Utah. Along its path, it drains the Uinta Mountains (via the Duchesne River), northeastern Colorado, via the Yampa River and White Rivers, and carves the spectacular canyons of Flame Gorge, Dinosaur National Park, the Book Cliffs, and the northern side of the Colorado Plateau.
Colorado
Uncompahgre River
The Uncompahgre, which means “red water spring” in Ute, is a tributary of the Gunnison River, which flows into the Colorado River near Grand Junction. It drains the northern side of the Sneffels Range, a sub-range of the San Juan Mountains in Southwest Colorado. This one most beautiful mountain areas I have ever run across. But I have little doubt that this statement applies to much of the San Juan Range, as well as other high mountain areas of Colorado that I have yet visit.
Dolores River
The Dolores (Spanish: Our Lady of Sorrows) River is a 241 mile long river in Southwestern, Colorado that drains, along with its main tributary the San Miguel River, part of the Colorado Plateau, as well as some of the southwestern slopes of the San Juan Mountains. The river begins near Lizard Head Pass in Colorado and joins the Colorado River across the border in Utah northeast of Moab. It was explored by Juan Maria Antonio Rivera in 1765, on an expedition from Santa Fe, but like many of the Spanish place names in Colorado, the origin of the name is uncertain, as many groups had been in the region prior to Rivera’s expedition, and some Spanish names were already in common use.
One of the interesting aspects of the Dolores River, is the traces of mining history that cling to its sandstone walls. Back in 1887, the Montrose Placer Mining Company built a 12 mile long Hanging Flume, that was suspended 75 feet above the river. When in use, the flume transported upwards of 80 million gallons of water a day. Unfortunately the flume was only used for 3 years, as much of the gold in the area was determined to be unrecoverable.
Denver Post: 121-year-old western Colorado mining flume clings to its secrets
Mancos River
The Mancos River, which resides near the Four Corners Region of Colorado, played a vital role for the Anasazi of Mesa Verde.
Animas River
The Animas is a 126 mile river that flows through the towns of Durango in Colorado, and Farmington in New Mexico, before connecting with the San Juan River. Both it and the San Juan would have been well known to the Anasazi of Chaco Canyon, and Aztec Ruin near Farmington.
Utah
The Colorado and San Juan Rivers
The Colorado River carves its way through the Southeastern edge of the state of Utah, connecting with the San Juan River in the Four Corners Region. In addition to help form the scenic canyon country of Utah’s Colorado Plateau, it was a vital resource to the Native Americans in Southeastern Utah, in particular those who inhabited Grand Gulch, Hovenweep and the Montezuma Creek area.
Green River
While the Green River begins in Wyoming much of its course lies in the state of Utah. It begins its Utah journey at Flaming Gorge, a beautiful mountain/high desert canyon that was turned into a reservoir in 1964. The reservoir holds nearly 4 million acre feet of water, and premier recreational area. From there the river passes briefly into the state of Colorado, through a shared valley known as Browns Park. Browns Park is known for its isolation (even today), and its beauty. It was the former that attracted the outlaws that paint much of its Wild West History history. The most well known are Butch Cassidy and Tom Thorn. It is also the birthplace of Ann Basset, a well known rancher in the West, who along with her sister were associated with Cassidy’s Wild Bunch gang.
Butch Cassidy as many know, was ultimately forced to flea the country because of his long history of criminal activity. Along with another colorful criminal of the Wild West, Harry Alonzo Longabaugh, known as the “Sundance Kid”, he ended up in Argentina and Bolivia. And it was in Bolivia where he died in a shoot out with the Bolivian Army.
Tom Thorn while considered an outlaw at the end of his life, wore a variety of hats during his life, from a scout, and solider, to a Pinkerton agent. He is also suspected of killing at least 17 people as a hired gunman. He was ultimately jailed, and executed for the killing of 14-year-old Willie Nickell, the son of a rancher that had been feuding with his fellow neigbhor and rancher Jim Miller.
South of Browns Park, is the Gates of Lodore, or Lodore Canyon in the Colorado portion of Dinosaur National Park. The canyon has been notorious for its wild rapids, ever since the John Wesley Powell expedition, which lost 2,000 pounds of food and equipment while passing through it. The canyon is named after the English poem Cataract of Lodore.
Farther into Dinosaur National Park, the Green River meets the Yampa River at a spectacular confluence known as Echo Park. The prominent geologic feature here is Steamboat Rock, originally named Echo Rock by the John Wesley Powell Expedition of 1869. The expedition would go to record the first detailed observations of large sections of the Green and Colorado Rivers (and Colorado Plateau), including the first recorded expedition of white men through the Grand Canyon.
While remnants of the Fremont Indian culture, are found throughout the Green River basin, there are some particularly interesting sites within and near to Dinosaur National Park. The Fremont as I have mentioned in other posts, were a native american culture that inhabited much of Utah between 1 A.D. to 1300 A.D. Although from my experience their most significant sites are in the eastern half of Utah, along the prominent river corridors within the state. There is some evidence to suggest that they shared cultural ties or at least had interactions with the Anasazi, that allowed the sharing of knowledge related to building construction, and agriculture. A couple of well known petroglyph sites with the region attributed to them include carvings along Dry Creek east of Vernal Utah, known as the McConkie Ranch site, as well as McKee Springs in the Island Park area of Dinosaur NP.
South of Dinosaur National Park, the Green River enters one of the most isolated places remaining in Utah, Desolation Canyon and the Tavaputs Plateau. It has remained largely untouched since the John Wesley Powell expedition. In addition to white water rafting it is known for an abundance of archaeological remains from the Ute, Fremont and Archaic Indians. Two prominent locations are Nine Mile Canyon, and Range Creek. Nine Mile Canyon is readily accessible from the town of Price in central Utah, whereas Range Creek remained largely unknown to the outside world for a 100 years, until the property owners turned it over to the state of Utah in 2004. The canyon is known for an abundance of prehistoric archaeological treasures in pristine condition. It is now managed by the Utah Museum of Natural History, and only foot and horse traffic are allowed in the area.
Another archaeological site on the edge of the Tavaputs, in the Book Cliffs is also worth mention. Known as Sego Canyon, it is accessible from Interstate 70. Its a unique site in that it displays over a very short distance the rock are of three distinct cultures, the Utes, the Fremont and Archaic Indians.
South of I-70, the Green River meanders over a relatively flat stretch, before converging in spectacular fashion with the Colorado River, inside of Canyonlands, one of Utah’s famous national parks. However before doing so, it meets up with Barrier Creek, a fairly nondescript stream that carves its way through Horseshoe Canyon. What makes Barrier Creek, and more importantly Horseshoe Canyon (once known as Barrier Canyon) important is that it serves as an important archetype (known as the Barrier Canyon Style) in Southwest archaeology for the beautiful pictographs of the Archaic Indians. The pictographs in Horseshoe Canyon, are estimated to range in age from 1000-4000 years old, and are in some case more than 7 feet tall. The most prominent example, known as the Great Gallery, has been likened to one of the greatest depictions of indigenous prehistoric art in North America, if not the world. Throughout Utah more than 200 sites, or panels have been found that exhibit the BCS style.
Utah Museum of Natural History : Bold Figures, Blurred History: The Great Gallery in Horseshoe Canyon
J.W. Powell River History Museum – John Wesley Powell in the Lost Canyons of the Green River
Duchesne River
The Duchesne River, first explored by the Domínguez–Escalante expedition in 1776, was named by French American trappers coming up from Taos, New Mexico between 1808 and 1824. The river drains the south side of the Uinta Mountains, the largest east-west mountain range in the United States, and the tallest mountain range within the state of Utah. The highest peak, Kings Peak is 13,528 ft. The high Uintas, with smoothed mountain peaks, and broad U-shaped valleys, are a popular destination for hikers, horse back riders, and snow machiners. The Uintas were extensively glaciated during the last ice age, and most of the large stream valleys on both the north and south sides of the range held long valley glaciers.
The Duchesne River also drains a part the eastern side of the Wasatch Mountains. The range is the longest and most prominent in the state, and its watershed supports much of the State’s population.
San Rafael River
The San Rafael River flows through the San Rafael Swell, a prominent geologic feature in Utah, featuring a giant dome-shaped anticline of sandstone, shale, and limestone that emerged during the Paleocene era, 40-60 million years ago. The region was once inhabited by the Fremont, Paiute and Ute Indians, and numerous examples of pictographic rock art can be found within its canyons.
San Rafael Swell – Utah – Revere Overland
Escalante River
The Escalante River, named after Silvestre Vélez de Escalante of the Domínguez–Escalante expedition of 1776, was discovered by Almon Thompson of the John Wesley Powell expedition. The river which carves its way through 90 miles of deep sandstone canyons before entering Lake Powell, is notable for being the last sizable river found in the lower-48 states. It is a favorite of those visiting Grand Staircase – Escalante National Monument, and Coyote Gulch.
Backpacking Utah:The Escalante River, Scorpion Gulch, Coyote Gulch, Stevens Canyon, & Halls Creek – MyOwnFrontier
Fremont River
The Fremont River, is a 95 mile long river that flows from Fish Lake in the Wasatch Plateau mountain region, and down through Capitol Reef National Park, before entering the Dirty Devil River. The River is named after John Charles Fremont, an explorer and politician, whose name is also used in reference to the Fremont People, who inhabit the region of the Fremont River, and left behind numerous examples of rock art throughout Eastern Utah.
Virgin River
The Virgin River is by most as the primary water source that flows through the Canyons of Zion National Park in southwestern Utah. From there it flows south through the spectacular Virgin River Gorge, and eventually into Lake Meade, 40 miles east of Las Vegas, in Nevada.
Zion National Park – We The Keepers
Zion National Park. Autumn – 4K Nature Documentary Film
Arizona
Colorado River
In Arizona the Colorado River is responsible for some of the most spectacular scenery in the United States, including Horseshoe Bend near the Utah/Arizona Border, and of course the Grand Canyon, one of the largest geologic wonders in the world. From there it feeds Lake Meade, the largest reservoir in the United States, and the primary source of water for the City of Las Vegas. From there Colorado forms much of the border between Arizona and California, and feeds several other reservoirs including Lake Mohave and Lake Havasu, before passing through Yuma (an extensive winter agricultural region), and draining into the Gulf of California in Mexico.
Kayak Camping on the Colorado River Horseshoe Bend – Glen Canyon Dam to Lee’s Ferry – Part 1 – Youtube
Kayak Camping & Fishing Marble Canyon | Horseshoe Bend – Glen Canyon Dam to Lee’s Ferry – Part 2 – Youtube
Kayaking the Bill Williams River, Arizona – Youtube
Little Colorado River
The Little Colorado, the lesser known brother of the Colorado offers some amazing scenery of its own, especially the turquoise blue water of the Little Colorado River Gorge. And during unusual rain events, the amazing Grand Falls comes to life. Grand Falls, which formed approximately 20,000 years ago, is the product of a lava dam caused by the nearby Merriam Crater, a volcanic cinder cone.
Verde River
The Verde River and its companion Walnut Creek, form a tributary to the Salt and Colorado Rivers that was vital to a number of Native American tribes that inhabited the area south of the San Francisco Peaks mountain range of Flagstaff, Arizona. This is particularly true of the Sinagua people, that inhabited the region near Sedona and Prescott between 600-1400 A.D. Evidence of their time can be found at Montezuma Castle, the ruins at Walnut Canyon National Monument, and the 110-room reconstructed pueblo at Tuzigoot National Monument.
Verde River Kayak – Youtube
The Enigmatic Montezuma Castle and Well – Youtube
Gila River
Historically the Gila River, which starts in the Black Range Range, drained much of southern Arizona, and includes the major tributaries of the Salt, Verde and San Pedro River (which begins in Sonora, Mexico). More than 2000 years of occupation by Native American tribes has been documented along the river, including the Hohokam culture, which setup a complex system of dams to support various agricultural crops in the area around Phoenix.
Gila River Packraft: Middle and West Forks – Youtube
Our Land: The Gila River – Youtube
Ancient Waterways of Life: Hohokam Irrigation Systems – Youtube
Salt River
The Salt River is the largest of the Gila River’s tributaries, and the focal point of agricultural activities in Arizona (outside of Yuma) , both presently, and historically by the Hohokam and other Native American cultures. Today, more than 1000 miles of canals cross the region providing water for the people of the Phoenix metro areas, as well as local agricultural crops like cotton, alfalfa, fruit, and vegetables.
How to Kayak the Salt River – Youtube
San Pedro River