Aspen Luxury Rentals - ASPEN LUXURY RENTALS offers elegant private residences for your next vacation to Aspen. Offering unrivaled services and the most spectacular homes in Aspen, our luxury vacation rentals are available for your next getaway to the Aspen and Snowmass areas.
Aspen

Colorado River

Colorado River

Map Weather Yellow Pages Bookmark Send to Friend Print

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.

 more info

Colorado River Listings: (add your listing)


Colorado Rafting – Family & Advanced Whitewater
Raft on 5 Colorado rivers; easy floats to Class V. First-rate guest service & free wetsuits. See our AWARD-WINNING website for videos, trip options & our other adventures.
view site : call us (877) 723-8464

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.

Arkansas Valley Adventures - Whitewater Rafting - We offer whitewater rafting on five different central Colorado rivers with all different ability levels from flat water scenic floats to heart pumping class V.

Aspen, CO Weather

Currently Outside
66F
Passing clouds. Mild.
View the Aspen, CO 7 Day Forecast

Other pages you might find helpful:


Colorado River Water Conservation District
The Colorado River Water Conservation District protects the waters the use thereof in the western Colorado region.