Colorado River

The Colorado River is born about 10,000 feet in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, just outside of Aspen, and flows southwest for 1,470 miles to the Gulf of California, better known as the Sea of Cortez, in Mexico. The 1,360 miles of its route in the United States makes it the nation's fifth longest river. It drains a large portion of the North American continent covering 242,000 square miles in the United States and 3,000 square miles in Mexico.

The Colorado River and its tributaries drain southwestern Wyoming and western Colorado, parts of Utah, Nevada, New Mexico and California, and almost all of Arizona. Three fourths of the basin is federal land devoted to national forests and parks, and Indian reservations.

History shows that the Colorado River has served many purposes. The Ute Indians of the Roaring Fork River Valley, now home to Aspen, Colorado, and Southern Paiute Indian tribes hunted and gathered in the plateaus and canyonlands of the upper Colorado basin for centuries. The Hohokam Indians, in the lower basin, built the largest prehistoric canal irrigation system in the American West. Indian groups maintained their traditional life ways and vestiges with respect to the Colorado River. Then the Europeans began their exploration, leading to the discovering of the Grand Canyon and its rich geologic wonders.

Today, the Colorado River is an important water supply to the southwest populations, who depend on the Colorado River and its tributaries for water. Dams were constructed and behind the infamous Hoover Dam, Lake Mead holds almost a two-year supply of water for the southwest.

Not only is the Colorado River appreciated for the drinking water it provides, but also for its amazing recreational opportunities and the tremendous terrain it travels through. Day and multi-use river trips on the Colorado River and its tributaries are life changing. Whether you are looking down on the river as it cuts through a desert basin or through a huge slab of granite, or if you are in the midst the biggest whitewater you could possibly imagine, or catching a native trout on a fly you tied yourself – the river teaches us something and brings a sense of clarity to our lives.