The Colorado is joined by over 25 significant tributaries, of which the Green River is the largest by both length and discharge. The Green River takes drainage from the Wind River Range of west-central Wyoming, from Utah's Uinta Mountains, and from the Rockies of northwestern Colorado. The Gila River is the second longest and drains a greater area than the Green, but has a significantly lower flow because of a more arid climate and larger diversions for irrigation and cities. Both the Gunnison and San Juan rivers, which derive most of their water from Rocky Mountains snowmelt, contribute more water than the Gila contributed naturally.
Major tributaries
Colorado River
Colorado River | Major tributaries
The Colorado is joined by over 25 significant tributaries: Green River,  Gila River , Green River, Gila River, Gunnison and San Juan rivers. It is joined by over 25 significant tributaries. Green River, Wind River,  Gila River
are the oldest rocks in the world in the grand canyon
user
Yes, the rock layers exposed in the Grand Canyon and in the Grand Canyon National Park area range in age from about 200 million to nearly 2 billion years old.
assistant
is there any river flowing through or alongside it?
user
Yes, Colorado River
assistant
what exactly is that canyon mentioned above?
user
It is a steep-sided canyon carved by the Colorado River in Arizona, United States.
assistant
what are some of the tributaries of the water body mentioned above?
user
The principal tributaries of the Colorado River of North America are the Gila River, the San Juan River, the Green River, and the Gunnison River.
List of tributaries of the Colorado River | Introduction
The Colorado River is joined by five significant tributaries: the Concho River, Pecan Bayou, the Llano River, the San Saba River and the Pedernales River. Beals Creek is also a tributary fed by arroyos such as the Sulphur Springs Draw, the Johnson Draw, and the McKenzie, Seminole, Monument, Mustang, and Midland draws.
Colorado River (Texas) | Major tributaries
The following is a tree demonstrating the points at which the major and minor tributaries of the Colorado River branch off from the main river and from each other.
List of tributaries of the Colorado River | Tributary tree
River and Tributary Locations determined by examining maps available at USGS national atlas [[Category:Colorado River]] [[Category:Tributaries of the Colorado River| ]] [[Category:Lists of river tributaries|Colorado]] [[Category:Lists of river tributaries of the United States|Colorado]]
List of tributaries of the Colorado River | References
The river's principal tributaries are the Concho River, Pecan Bayou, Llano River, San Saba River, and Pedernales River.
List of tributaries of the Colorado River (Texas) | Tributaries
Here, the San Juan River, carrying runoff from the southern slope of Colorado's San Juan Mountains, joins the Colorado from the east. The Colorado then enters northern Arizona, where since the 1960s Glen Canyon Dam near Page has flooded the Glen Canyon reach of the river, forming Lake Powell for water supply and hydroelectricity generation. In Arizona, the river passes Lee's Ferry, an important crossing for early explorers and settlers and since the early 20th century the principal point where Colorado River flows are measured for apportionment to the seven U.S. and two Mexican states in the basin. Downstream, the river enters Marble Canyon, the beginning of the Grand Canyon, passing under the Navajo Bridges on a now southward course.
Colorado River | Course
The Colorado is joined by over 25 significant tributaries, of which the Green River is the largest by both length and discharge. The Green River takes drainage from the Wind River Range of west-central Wyoming, from Utah's Uinta Mountains, and from the Rockies of northwestern Colorado. The Gila River is the second longest and drains a greater area than the Green, but has a significantly lower flow because of a more arid climate and larger diversions for irrigation and cities. Both the Gunnison and San Juan rivers, which derive most of their water from Rocky Mountains snowmelt, contribute more water than the Gila contributed naturally.
Colorado River | Major tributaries
Below Lee's Ferry the Colorado begins to trend more south than southwest, through the vertical-walled Marble Canyon which is crossed by the twin Navajo Bridges as it enters Grand Canyon National Park. At the southern end of Marble Canyon, the river is joined by another tributary, the capricious Little Colorado River, which drains the Painted Desert region of northeast Arizona and western New Mexico. Although normally a calm and clear spring-fed stream, it can rise dramatically following monsoon storms over the Colorado Plateau. Then the river then turns abruptly west directly across the folds and fault line of the plateau, through the Upper and Lower Granite Gorges of Grand Canyon, which is long and from between the upper cliffs.
Course of the Colorado River | <a href="Arizona">Arizona</a>
Tributaries of the upper San Juan River above Navajo Dam include the Rio Blanco and the Navajo River, and the Piedra River and Los Pinos River (Pine River) which join the San Juan in Navajo Lake. In addition to the Animas River, several major tributaries join below Farmington including the La Plata River and Mancos River in New Mexico, and McElmo Creek in Utah. The San Juan also has a number of seasonal tributaries that drain arid regions of the Colorado Plateau. These include the Cañon Largo and Chaco River in New Mexico, and the Montezuma Creek and Chinle Creek in Utah.
San Juan River (Colorado River tributary) | Course
The Little Colorado River () is a tributary of the Colorado River in the U.S. state of Arizona, providing the principal drainage from the Painted Desert region. Together with its major tributary, the Puerco River, it drains an area of about in eastern Arizona and western New Mexico. Although it stretches almost , only the headwaters and the lowermost reaches flow year-round. Between St. Johns and Cameron, most of the river is a wide, braided wash, only containing water after heavy snowmelt or flash flooding. The lower is known as the Little Colorado River Gorge and forms one of the largest arms of the Grand Canyon, at over deep where it joins the Colorado near Desert View in Grand Canyon National Park.
Little Colorado River | Introduction
Most of the upper river is a swift whitewater stream ranging from wide, the depth ranging from , with a few notable exceptions, such as the Blackrocks reach where the river is nearly deep. In a few areas, such as the marshy Kawuneeche Valley near the headwaters and the Grand Valley, it exhibits braided characteristics. Arcing northwest, the Colorado begins to cut across the eponymous Colorado Plateau, a vast area of high desert centered at the Four Corners of the southwestern United States. Here, the climate becomes significantly drier than that in the Rocky Mountains, and the river becomes entrenched in progressively deeper gorges of bare rock, beginning with Ruby Canyon and then Westwater Canyon as it enters Utah, now once again heading southwest.
Colorado River | Course
Although about 90 percent of the river's water originates as snowmelt in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, the largest portion of the watershed – , or 40 percent – lies in New Mexico. A further 23 percent of the watershed is in Colorado, 20 percent is in Arizona, and 17 percent is in Utah. In terms of area drained, the Chaco River is the largest tributary draining , followed by Chinle Creek which drains . The Animas River is the largest tributary in terms of stream flow, but drains a comparatively slim watershed of . In the 21st century, the snowpack in the San Juan Mountains has often been diminished by warming winter temperatures which has led to concerns about the long-term water supply for the San Juan River.
San Juan River (Colorado River tributary) | Geography
The northern tributaries of the San Juan River, which originate in the San Juan Mountains, are snowmelt-driven with the highest flows between March and June. Southern tributaries such as the Chaco River are mostly ephemeral but can carry large volumes of water during flash floods.
San Juan River (Colorado River tributary) | Course
Farther downstream it receives the Dolores River and defines the southern border of Arches National Park, before passing Moab and flowing through "The Portal", where it exits the Moab Valley between a pair of sandstone cliffs. In Utah, the Colorado flows primarily through the "slickrock" country, which is characterized by its narrow canyons and unique "folds" created by the tilting of sedimentary rock layers along faults. This is one of the most inaccessible regions of the continental United States. Below the confluence with the Green River, its largest tributary, in Canyonlands National Park, the Colorado enters Cataract Canyon, named for its dangerous rapids, and then Glen Canyon, known for its arches and erosion-sculpted Navajo sandstone formations.
Colorado River | Course
Known for its dramatic canyons, whitewater rapids, and eleven U.S. National Parks, the Colorado River and its tributaries are a vital source of water for 40 million people. The river and its tributaries are controlled by an extensive system of dams, reservoirs, and aqueducts, which in most years divert its entire flow for agricultural irrigation and domestic water supply. Its large flow and steep gradient are used for generating hydroelectric power, and its major dams regulate peaking power demands in much of the Intermountain West. Intensive water consumption has dried up the lower of the river, which has rarely reached the sea since the 1960s.
Colorado River | Introduction
Tributary dams are organized into two lists; those in the Upper Basin, defined as the half of the Colorado River basin above Lee's Ferry, Arizona, and the Lower Basin. The Upper Basin include such tributary systems as the Green, Gunnison and San Juan. Tributaries in the Lower Basin include the Little Colorado, Virgin and Gila. A key tributary of the San Juan River, the Animas River, was severely affected by the EPA's accidental August 2015 Gold King Mine waste water spill. Notes:
List of dams in the Colorado River system | Introduction
Crustal extension in the Basin and Range Province began about 20 million years ago and the modern Sierra Nevada began forming about 10 million years ago, eventually diverting the Colorado southwards towards the Gulf. As the Colorado Plateau continued to rise between 5 and 2.5 million years ago, the river maintained its ancestral course (as an antecedent stream) and began to cut the Grand Canyon. Antecedence played a major part in shaping other peculiar geographic features in the watershed, including the Dolores River's bisection of Paradox Valley in Colorado and the Green River's cut through the Uinta Mountains in Utah.
Colorado River | Geology
From the west, the major tributaries are Harris Wash, Twentyfive Mile Creek, Coyote Gulch, Fortymile Gulch, and Fiftymile Creek, along with the smaller Phipps, Fence, Scorpion, Davis, Clear, and Indian Creeks. Most of these larger creeks flow from the top of the Kaiparowits Plateau or from the base of its eastern edge, the Straight Cliffs Formation. An even greater number of tributaries flow in from the north and east, including Death Hollow and Calf Creeks, the combined Boulder and Deer Creeks, The Gulch, Wolverine and Silver Falls Creeks, and Choprock, Moody, Stevens, and Cow Canyons. Streams from the north flow from Boulder Mountain, while those from the northeast originate in the Circle Cliffs area, near the Waterpocket Fold in Capitol Reef National Park.
Canyons of the Escalante | Geography
The Escalante River, a desert stream which runs through the sinuous slot canyons of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, joins about two-thirds of the way down Lake Powell. The San Juan River, which carries runoff from the southern slopes of the San Juan Mountains and the Four Corners region in Colorado and New Mexico, joins several miles further downstream; it forms an arm of the lake nearly long. Although the San Juan contributes only about one-tenth of the Colorado River flow, it is extremely muddy, contributing as much as 40 percent of the total sediment load. The area around the confluence is dominated geographically by Navajo Mountain which rises over a mile (1.6 km) above the surrounding landscape, which is part of the Navajo Nation.
Course of the Colorado River | <a href="Utah">Utah</a>
The following tributary chart shows many important streams that flow through the State of Colorado including all 158 named rivers. The chart is arranged by tributary and area of the drainage basin. The names of the 17 Colorado rivers with a drainage basin of more than 10,000 square kilometers (3,900 sq mi) are shown in bold. Oceans and streams outside of Colorado are shown in "italics". "Pacific Ocean" "Atlantic Ocean"
List of rivers of Colorado | Tributary chart
In Utah the Colorado enters the high desert canyon country of the Colorado Plateau, flowing swiftly southwest through Westwater Canyon. Near Dewey it picks up the Dolores River, which together with its tributary the San Miguel drains the western slope of the San Juan Mountains. It then passes the Fisher Towers and forms part of the southern border of Arches National Park before entering the Moab Valley at Moab. Just below Moab it carves through a deep mountain pass known as "The Portal". The Colorado then passes by Dead Horse Point State Park before entering the backcountry of Canyonlands National Park where it is joined from the north by the Green River, its biggest tributary.
Course of the Colorado River | <a href="Utah">Utah</a>
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.
Course of the Colorado River | <a href="Colorado">Colorado</a>
For example, the Gila River—formerly one of the Colorado's largest tributaries—contributes little more than a trickle in most years due to use of its water by cities and farms in central Arizona. The average flow rate of the Colorado at the northernmost point of the Mexico–United States border (NIB, or Northerly International Boundary) is about , per year—less than a tenth of the natural flow—due to upstream water use. Below this point, the remaining flow is diverted to irrigate the Mexicali Valley, leaving a dry riverbed from Morelos Dam to the sea that is supplemented by intermittent flows of irrigation drainage water.
Colorado River | Discharge
In addition, the mountains are particularly vulnerable to dust storms originating from the Great Basin; dust settling on snowpack increases the absorption of solar energy and often leads to premature melting.
San Juan River (Colorado River tributary) | Geography
This may have been the ancestral Dolores River, before the uplift of the Ute Mountains diverted it to its present northerly course. When the San Juan Basin filled and overflowed, it formed an outflow channel west into the old Dolores River bed, establishing the San Juan River's modern course. Tectonic forces about 2–3 million years ago caused the terrain to rise across the Monument Upwarp in southeast Utah and northeast Arizona, and the river maintained its course as an antecedent stream. The Monument Upwarp consists of a series of parallel anticlines and synclines running generally north to south, in an area roughly long and wide; where the river passes through these formations it has sliced deep canyons through the distinctively reddish rock.
San Juan River (Colorado River tributary) | Geology
The San Juan River drains approximately in Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Arizona; the watershed land area is almost the same size as the state of West Virginia. The main stem of the river does not actually flow through Arizona, but comes very close at the Four Corners. The highest point in the San Juan River watershed is Windom Peak, located near the headwaters of the Animas River. The lowest elevation, where the San Juan River flows into Lake Powell, has a normal maximum elevation of but typically fluctuates dozens of feet per year due to seasonal nature of runoff in the Colorado River Basin affecting the reservoir level.
San Juan River (Colorado River tributary) | Geography
Core samples taken in 2011 indicate aggradations up to thick in the San Juan River arm of Lake Powell.
San Juan River (Colorado River tributary) | Geology
The San Juan River is a major tributary of the Colorado River in the Southwestern United States, providing the chief drainage for the Four Corners region of Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Arizona. Originating as snowmelt in the San Juan Mountains (part of the Rocky Mountains) of Colorado, it flows through the deserts of northern New Mexico and southeastern Utah to join the Colorado River at Glen Canyon. The river drains a high, arid region of the Colorado Plateau and along its length it is often the only significant source of fresh water for many miles. The San Juan is also one of the muddiest rivers in North America, carrying an average of 25 million US tons (22.6 million t) of silt and sediment each year.
San Juan River (Colorado River tributary) | Introduction
Perhaps the strangest stream name in Colorado belongs to the West Fork East Fork Williams Fork located in Garfield County. Many streams in Colorado share a name with another stream in that state. In addition to the Canadian River that is the largest tributary of the Arkansas River, there is also a Canadian River that is a tributary of the North Platte River. In addition to the Cimarron River that is another major tributary of the Arkansas River, there is also a Cimarron River that is a tributary of the Gunnison River. There is a Fall River that is a tributary of the Big Thompson River as well as a Fall River that is a tributary of Clear Creek.
List of rivers of Colorado | Notes
From there it flows west through the Navajo Nation, turning northwest near Shiprock and its namesake monolith, crossing very briefly back into southwest Colorado (within half a mile (0.8 km) of the Four Corners quadripoint) before entering southeastern Utah. West of Bluff, Utah the river slices through the Comb Ridge and enters a series of rugged winding canyons, often over in depth. The lower of the San Juan River, in a remote portion of the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, are flooded by Lake Powell, which is formed by Glen Canyon Dam on the Colorado River. The San Juan joins the Colorado in San Juan County, Utah at a point about to the north of Navajo Mountain and northeast of Page, Arizona.
San Juan River (Colorado River tributary) | Course
At the same time, streams flowed from highlands in central Arizona north and across what is today the western Grand Canyon, possibly feeding a larger river. The mechanism by which the ancestral Lower Colorado River captured this drainage and the drainage from much of the rest of the Colorado Plateau is not known. Possible explanations include headward erosion or a broken natural dam of a lake or river. Whatever the cause, the Lower Colorado probably captured the landlocked Upper Colorado somewhere west of the Kaibab Uplift. The much larger drainage area and yet steeper stream gradient helped to further accelerate downcutting.
Geology of the Grand Canyon area | Colorado River: origin and development
Canyon Creek is a tributary of the Salt River in central Arizona. Originating on the Mogollon Rim, the creek flows generally south to its confluence with the Salt in the Salt River Canyon Wilderness, about above Theodore Roosevelt Lake.
Canyon Creek (Salt River tributary) | Introduction
The drainage basin or watershed of the Colorado River encompasses of southwestern North America, making it the seventh largest on the continent. About , or 97 percent of the watershed, is in the United States. The river and its tributaries drain most of western Colorado and New Mexico, southwestern Wyoming, eastern and southern Utah, southeastern Nevada and California, and nearly all of Arizona. The areas drained within Baja California and Sonora are very small and do not contribute measurable runoff. Most of the basin is arid, defined by the Sonoran and Mojave deserts and the expanse of the Colorado Plateau, although significant expanses of forest are found in the Rocky Mountains; the Kaibab, Aquarius, and Markagunt plateaus in southern Utah and northern Arizona; the Mogollon Rim through central Arizona; and other smaller mountain ranges and sky islands.
Colorado River | Watershed
In Utah it meanders southwest across the Yampa Plateau and through the Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservation and the Ouray National Wildlife Refuge. Two miles south of Ouray, Utah, it is joined by Duchesne River, and three miles (5 km) downstream by the White River. Ten miles farther downstream it is joined by the Willow River. South of the plateau, it is joined by Nine Mile Creek, then enters the Roan Cliffs where it flows south through the back-to-back Desolation and Gray canyons, with a combined length of 120 mi (192 km). In Gray Canyon, it is joined by the Price River.
Green River (Colorado River tributary) | Description
The Western Slope of Colorado is drained by the Colorado River and its tributaries (primarily the Gunnison River, Green River, and the San Juan River), or by evaporation in its arid areas. The Colorado River flows through Glenwood Canyon, and then through an arid valley made up of desert from Rifle to Parachute, through the desert canyon of De Beque Canyon, and into the arid desert of Grand Valley, where the city of Grand Junction is located. Also prominent in or near the southern portion of the Western Slope are the Grand Mesa, which lies to the southeast of Grand Junction; the high San Juan Mountains, a rugged mountain range; and to the west of the San Juan Mountains, the Colorado Plateau, a high arid region that borders Southern Utah.
Colorado | Colorado Western Slope
This is a List of tributaries of the Gila River, the final river drainage of the Colorado River, and covers the entire width of southern Arizona. The headwaters of the Gila River begin in the Gila National Forest of New Mexico. The northern branch tributary to the Gila River in the Gila National Forest, is the San Francisco River. The map highlights the Gila River extending eastward across southern Arizona to the southwestern corner of Arizona and its input into the Colorado River, from its origins about 400 miles east in the southwestern corner of the state of New Mexico.
List of tributaries of the Gila River | Introduction
List of the tributaries of the Colorado River of Texas, that flows in the south-central United States to the Gulf of Mexico.
List of tributaries of the Colorado River (Texas) | Introduction
The Canyon River's source is approximately east of the source of the West Fork and west of the source of the Middle Fork. These rivers originate in the southern Olympic Mountains in the general vicinity of Chapel Peak, Dusk Point, and Anderson Butte.
Satsop River | Course
This part of the river bisects the -high Kaibab Uplift and passes seven plateaus (the Kaibab, Kanab, and Shivwits plateaus bound the northern part of the canyon and the Coconino bounds the southern part). Each of these plateaus are bounded by north–south-trending faults and monoclines created or reactivated during the Laramide orogeny. Streams flowing into the Colorado River have since exploited these faults to excavate their own tributary canyons, such as Bright Angel Canyon.
Geology of the Grand Canyon area | Colorado River: origin and development
In places, the San Juan has entrenched its ancient meanders thousands of feet into the bedrock, as can be observed in Goosenecks State Park, where it winds through a set of horseshoe bends while traveling a straight-line distance of only . The canyon cutting was accelerated during the Pleistocene Ice Ages when the climate of the area was much wetter, resulting in floods of up to (ten times larger than anything recorded on the San Juan in human history). The San Juan River flows through highly erodible sedimentary rock including sandstone, siltstone and shale, such as the slide-prone Chinle Formation.
San Juan River (Colorado River tributary) | Geology
The present-day Salton Sea can be considered the most recent incarnation of Lake Cahuilla, though on a much smaller scale. Between 1.8 million and 10,000 years ago, massive flows of basalt from the Uinkaret volcanic field in northern Arizona dammed the Colorado River within the Grand Canyon. At least 13 lava dams were formed, the largest of which was more than high, backing the river up for nearly to present-day Moab, Utah. The lack of associated sediment deposits along this stretch of the Colorado River, which would have accumulated in the impounded lakes over time, suggests that most of these dams did not survive for more than a few decades before collapsing or being washed away.
Colorado River | Geology
The river rises as two forks in the White Mountains of mid-eastern Arizona, in Apache County. The West Fork starts in a valley on the north flank of Mount Baldy at an elevation of nearly , while the East Fork starts nearby. The forks meet in a canyon near the town of Greer, forming the main Little Colorado River. It flows into River Reservoir, then leaves the canyon near Eagar. The river then turns north, meandering through Richville Valley, before emptying into Lyman Lake, impounded by an irrigation dam built in 1912. From there the river continues north, past the town of St.
Little Colorado River | Course
The Colorado begins at La Poudre Pass in the Southern Rocky Mountains of Colorado, at above sea level. After a short run south, the river turns west below Grand Lake, the largest natural lake in the state. For the first of its course, the Colorado carves its way through the mountainous Western Slope, a sparsely populated region defined by the portion of the state west of the Continental Divide. As it flows southwest, it gains strength from many small tributaries, as well as larger ones including the Blue, Eagle and Roaring Fork rivers. After passing through De Beque Canyon, the Colorado emerges from the Rockies into the Grand Valley, a major farming and ranching region where it meets one of its largest tributaries, the Gunnison River, at Grand Junction.
Colorado River | Course
The following rivers are tributaries to the river Cormoș (from source to mouth):
Cormoș | Tributaries
It flows south through a narrow gorge. In its final miles the river valley broadens. At long, the West Fork is the longest tributary. The total river length from the West Fork's source to the mouth of the main stem Satsop River is approximately . The length from the source of the Canyon River is nearly as long, at . Its watershed is large. Much of the watershed is privately owned timber lands. The West Fork has two major tributaries, the long Canyon River and the long Little River. The Canyon River, West Fork, and Middle Fork all originate close to one another in the Olympic Mountains.
Satsop River | Course
Tributaries and sub-tributaries are hierarchically listed in order from the mouth of the Rio Grande upstream. Major dams and reservoir lakes are also noted.
List of tributaries of the Rio Grande | Introduction
Johns. Shortly afterwards, the river transforms from a perennial stream to an ephemeral wash as it travels northwestwards through Hunt Valley, where it receives the Zuni River, then receiving Silver Creek and the Puerco River—its main tributaries—near the town of Holbrook as it flows into the Painted Desert. The Little Colorado passes Joseph City and crosses the Southern Transcon route of the BNSF Railway (originally the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad), now winding north into Coconino County. The river enters the Navajo Nation, and drops over the Grand Falls of the Little Colorado shortly after. Below Grand Falls, the river flows through a short but rugged canyon for about .
Little Colorado River | Course
The Colorado River () is one of the principal rivers (along with the Rio Grande) in the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico. The river drains an expansive, arid watershed that encompasses parts of seven U.S. states and two Mexican states. Starting in the central Rocky Mountains of Colorado, the river flows generally southwest across the Colorado Plateau and through the Grand Canyon before reaching Lake Mead on the Arizona–Nevada border, where it turns south toward the international border. After entering Mexico, the Colorado approaches the mostly dry Colorado River Delta at the tip of the Gulf of California between Baja California and Sonora.
Colorado River | Introduction
Monthly average flows in the springtime average several hundred cfs and can reach . Only the upper reaches of the river above St. Johns, and the lowermost stretch below Cameron, flow year round; the middle section is basically a huge arroyo that carries water only during the wet seasons. According to a streamflow gauge near Cameron, before the river enters the Grand Canyon, the river's average annual flow was from 1948 to present. The highest annual average was in 1973, and the lowest was in 2000. The river's peak flows can be far higher than its average flow, because of quick desert runoff from cloudbursts.
Little Colorado River | Discharge
Colorado River () is a river of Costa Rica. It is a tributary of the Tempisque River.
Colorado River (Tempisque River tributary) | Introduction
Its sources are on the eastern slopes of the Andes in the same latitude as the Chilean volcano Tinguiririca (about 34° 48' S.) and takes a generally east-southeast course toward the Atlantic Ocean. After leaving the vicinity of the Andes, the Colorado flows through a barren, arid territory, and receives no tributary of note except the Salado (or "Curacó") from La Pampa Province—although it was once an outlet of the now-closed lake basin of Laguna Urre Lauquen. The bottom lands of the Colorado, in its course across Patagonia, are fertile and wooded, but too small in area to support more than a small, scattered population.
Colorado River (Argentina) | Course
The combined Salt River–Verde River drainage would be the major (and central) component of the south Mogollon Rim drainages of central Arizona (the Mogollon Plateau also drains north to the Little Colorado River).
List of tributaries of the Gila River | Three north–south drainages and Salt–Verde watershed
Below the confluence with the Little Colorado River, the river swings west into Granite Gorge, the most dramatic portion of the Grand Canyon, where the river cuts up to into the Colorado Plateau, exposing some of the oldest visible rocks on Earth, dating as long ago as 2 billion years. The of the river that flow through the Grand Canyon are largely encompassed by Grand Canyon National Park and are known for their difficult whitewater, separated by pools that reach up to in depth.
Colorado River | Course
Due to its westerly flow, the San Juan is considered a "male river" () and its sacred confluence with the south-flowing Colorado River (the "female river"), in Glen Canyon near Rainbow Bridge, "is the place where clouds and moisture are physically created." The Navajo made offerings to the river to "bless the land with water and provide protection from non-Navajo enemies". The Weminuche Ute, whose homeland was primarily in what is now Colorado, used the San Juan River as their southern boundary with the Navajo. The two groups considered each other enemies.
San Juan River (Colorado River tributary) | Indigenous peoples
The Colorado River is the single largest source of water in the southwestern United States and northwest Mexico; however, before massive dam projects tamed the river in the 20th century, its flow was far from dependable. Annual discharge from the Colorado River and its tributaries ranges from , and 10-year averages may fluctuate as much as . Flooding, and the river's enormous silt or sediment load, created problems for settlements in the Lower Colorado River Valley and navigation on the lower portion of the river. During droughts, there was too little water available for irrigation. In 1904, the Colorado River was accidentally redirected after it damaged a canal gate in Mexico, causing the river to flood part of California's Imperial Valley and create the Salton Sea.
Glen Canyon Dam | The need for a dam
Intermittent streams flowing down the Straight Cliffs merge to form larger branches, including Dry Fork, Big Hollow, the main branch of Coyote Gulch, and Hurricane Wash. The combined flow from these branches have carved a canyon up to deep into sandstone layers, before meeting the Escalante River.
Coyote Gulch | Introduction
The confluences of those two intermittent streams are just below Elephant Butte Dam. Water falling on the precipitous west face of the range drains directly into the Rio Grande by means of numerous first order canyons with high gradients. All are ephemeral and less than 3 miles in length. In contrast, the eastern side has only two primary drainages, each with a much lower gradient than those to the north and west. Water falling on the southern half of the east side flows into Barbee Draw. After joining another tributary near Point of Rocks to form Rincon Arroyo, this ephemeral drainage flows southward before joining the Rio Grande near Rincon, New Mexico.
Caballo Mountains | Geography
Well over 50 percent of the San Juan River watershed are Native American lands, the largest being the Navajo Nation, which covers portions of New Mexico, Arizona and Utah, in addition to the Jicarilla Apache Nation in New Mexico and the Ute Mountain and Southern Ute Indian Reservations in southwest Colorado. Federal agencies, principally the Bureau of Land Management, Forest Service and National Park Service, administer about 25 percent of the watershed. About 13 percent are privately owned (non-Indian) lands, and 3 percent belong to state and local governments. Protected areas in the watershed include Colorado's Mesa Verde National Park and Canyons of the Ancients National Monument; the Chaco Culture National Historical Park in New Mexico, Canyon de Chelly National Monument in Arizona and Bears Ears National Monument in Utah.
San Juan River (Colorado River tributary) | Administration and land use
There are 33 crustacean species found in the Colorado River and its tributaries within Grand Canyon National Park. Of these 33, 16 are considered true zooplankton organisms. Only 48 bird species regularly nest along the river, while others use the river as a migration corridor or as overwintering habitat. The bald eagle is one species that uses the river corridor as winter habitat.
Grand Canyon | Lower Sonoran
The U.S. state of Colorado includes the headwaters of several important rivers. The state is divided into two major hydrographic regions by the Continental Divide of the Americas. East of the Continental Divide, surface waters flow to the Gulf of Mexico, either via the Rio Grande or via one of several rivers (the South Platte River, the North Platte River, the Republican River, the Arkansas River, the Cimarron River, or the Canadian River) which eventually feed the Mississippi River along the way. West of the Continental Divide, surface waters flow via the Green River, the upper Colorado River (formerly the Grand River), or the San Juan River into the Colorado River and on to the Gulf of California.
List of drainage basins of Colorado | Introduction
Rifting started to create the Gulf of California far to the south 6 to 10 million years ago. Around the same time, the western edge of the Colorado Plateau may have sagged slightly. Both events changed the direction of many streams toward the sagging region and the increased gradient caused them to downcut much faster. From 5.5 million to 5 million years ago, headward erosion to the north and east consolidated these streams into one major river and associated tributary channels. This river, the ancestral Lower Colorado River, started to fill the northern arm of the gulf, which extended nearly to the site of Hoover Dam, with estuary deposits.
Geology of the Grand Canyon area | Colorado River: origin and development
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.
Course of the Colorado River | Introduction
The walls, high, drop in successive escarpments of , banded in splendid colors toward the narrow gorge of the present river. The river itself is a nearly uninterrupted series of violent rapids separated by calm, short pools. Deep inside the canyon it is joined from the north by Kanab Creek, which flows from southern Utah, and then from the south by Havasu Creek, known for the waterfalls it forms on the Havasupai Reservation. Further downstream it passes the Uinkaret volcanic field, where basalt eruptions millions of years ago formed huge lava dams across the Colorado. Although the dams have mostly been erased by erosion, a small portion remains as Lava Falls, generally considered the most difficult and dangerous rapids for boaters on the Colorado River.
Course of the Colorado River | <a href="Arizona">Arizona</a>
The following rivers are tributaries to the river Cozd:
Cozd | Tributaries
The river flows through the Parker Valley, much of which belongs to the Colorado River Indian Reservation, and then the Palo Verde Valley, where it is crossed by Interstate 10 near Blythe, California. The small Headgate Rock Dam removes water for irrigation in the Parker Valley and the Palo Verde Dam provides water to the Palo Verde Valley. The river then flows through a canyon in the Trigo Mountains, where the Cibola and Imperial National Wildlife Refuge encompass the wetland areas formed above Imperial Dam, which filled with silt shortly upon its completion in the 1930s. Most of the Colorado's remaining flow is removed for irrigation here.
Course of the Colorado River | <a href="California">California</a>/Arizona
The Colorado then swings sharply south and turns northwest north of Peach Springs, emerging from the Grand Canyon at the Grand Wash Cliffs, where it widens into the upper reaches of Lake Mead. The area also marks the general boundary between the Colorado Plateau and the Mojave Desert. Shortly west of that point it begins to form the border of Nevada to the north/west and Arizona to the south/east.
Course of the Colorado River | <a href="Arizona">Arizona</a>
Glen Canyon Dam, which creates Lake Powell, is situated in the town of Page in northern Arizona only about by river from the Utah border. The dam impounds the Colorado primarily for hydroelectricity generation. In front of the dam the Glen Canyon Bridge carries U.S. Route 89 over the Colorado River. Below here the Colorado flows through the last of Glen Canyon, passing the scenic Horseshoe Bend, before emerging briefly from its canyons at Lee's Ferry, where it is joined by the warm, shallow, muddy Paria River. Historically a ford used by Native Americans, explorers and settlers, Lee's Ferry serves as the dividing point between the Upper and Lower Colorado River Basins, which were each allocated one-half of the Colorado River flow in the Colorado River Compact of 1922.
Course of the Colorado River | <a href="Arizona">Arizona</a>
In October 1911, heavy monsoon rains generated the largest flood ever recorded on the San Juan River, causing severe damage along the entire length of the river and many of its tributaries. More than 100 bridges and of railroad track were destroyed in the Colorado part of the river basin alone, completely cutting off transport and communications. Along the Animas River, "virtually all the crops" were destroyed. On the lower river, most of Bluff was inundated and of farmland was swept away. At Mexican Hat, Utah the Goodridge bridge, whose deck was above the river, was destroyed, indicating the floodwaters were at least that deep.
San Juan River (Colorado River tributary) | 20th century
The Green River, located in the western United States, is the chief tributary of the Colorado River. The watershed of the river, known as the Green River Basin, covers parts of Wyoming, Utah, and Colorado. The Green River is long, beginning in the Wind River Mountains of Wyoming and flowing through Wyoming and Utah for most of its course, except for into western Colorado. Much of the route is through the Colorado Plateau and through some of the most spectacular canyons in the United States. It is only slightly smaller than the Colorado when the two rivers merge, but typically carries a larger load of silt.
Green River (Colorado River tributary) | Introduction
Emerging into the desert again, the Little Colorado skirts the eastern edge of Wupatki National Monument and passes the town of Cameron, where it is bridged by U.S. Highway 89. From Cameron, the Little Colorado River carves an extremely steep and narrow gorge into the Colorado Plateau, eventually achieving a maximum depth of about . The depth of the canyon is such that groundwater is forced to the surface, forming numerous springs that restore a perennial river flow. It joins the Colorado deep inside the Grand Canyon, miles from any major settlement. The confluence marks the end of the Marble Canyon segment of the Grand Canyon and the beginning of Upper Granite Gorge.
Little Colorado River | Course
Named tributaries of Eagle Creek from source to mouth are Cached Creek and Bench Canyon, then Copper, Boulder, Little Boulder, Two Color, West Eagle, and Skookum creeks, followed by Excelsior Gulch. Then Dixie, Bennet, O'Brien, Bradley, and East Fork Eagle creeks, followed by Blue Canyon and Twilight Gulch. Further downstream come Paddy Creek and Empire Gulch followed by Basin, Dempsey, Puzzle, and Shanghai creeks. Then Six Dollar Gulch and Holcolmb, Little Eagle, and Trouble creeks, followed by Town Gulch. Then Skull, Barnard, and Summit creeks.
Eagle Creek (Powder River tributary) | Tributaries
The following rivers are tributaries to the river Neman/Nemunas (from source to mouth):
Neman | Tributaries
The following rivers are tributaries to the river Bașeu (from source to mouth):
Bașeu | Tributaries
Canyon walls in this stretch rise above the sandy bed of the river. Other sights include large boulders, juniper trees, and Native American petroglyphs.
Dry River (Crooked River tributary) | Introduction
As a result, the San Juan is an extremely muddy river, contributing more than half of the sediment in the upper Colorado above Lees Ferry despite accounting for only 14 percent of the total runoff. Between 1914 and 1980 the U.S. Geological Survey station at Bluff, Utah recorded an average of 25.41 million tons of sediment carried by the San Juan River each year, ranging from a minimum of 3.24 million tons in 1978 to 112.4 million tons in 1941. The majority of the sediment originates in the watershed downstream of the Animas River. Since the closure of Glen Canyon Dam in 1963, sediments have been building a delta in Lake Powell instead of continuing down the Colorado River.
San Juan River (Colorado River tributary) | Geology
The humpback chub historically ranged from below present-day Hoover Dam in the Colorado River upstream into Colorado, and in the larger portions of Colorado River tributaries in Arizona, Utah, Colorado, and Wyoming. Presently the species is restricted to six population centers in: 1) the Colorado and Little Colorado rivers in Grand Canyon, Arizona; 2) the Colorado River in Cataract Canyon, Utah; 3) the Colorado River in Black Rocks, Colorado, and Westwater Canyon, Utah; 4) the Green River in Desolation and Gray canyons, Utah; 5) the Green River in Dinosaur National Monument, Colorado and Utah; 6) and the Yampa River in Dinosaur National Monument, Colorado.
Humpback chub | Range
In contrast, the regulated discharge rates on the lower Colorado River below Hoover Dam rarely exceed or drop below . Annual runoff volume has ranged from a high of in 1984 to a low of in 2002, although in most years only a small portion of this flow, if any, reaches the Gulf. Between 85 and 90 percent of the Colorado River's discharge originates in snowmelt, mostly from the Rocky Mountains of Colorado and Wyoming. The three major upper tributaries of the Colorado—the Gunnison, Green, and San Juan—alone deliver almost per year to the main stem, mostly from snowmelt. The remaining 10 to 15 percent comes from a variety of sources, principally groundwater base flow and summer monsoon storms.
Colorado River | Discharge
This is a list of streams in the U.S. state of Colorado.
List of rivers of Colorado | Introduction
The river has usually been described as formed by the confluence of the Grande and the Barrancas. However, since the Barrancas is only a small stream compared to the Grande, it is more accurate to describe the Barrancas as a tributary that joins the main river, which is known as the "Grande" above where the Barrancas joins it, and the "Colorado" below that point.
Colorado River (Argentina) | Naming
The following rivers are tributaries to the river Cracău (from source to mouth):
Cracău | Tributaries
This is a list of rivers longer than that flow into the Durance. They are listed in order of the confluence, starting upstream.
Durance | Summary of tributaries
Of the 158 named rivers that flow through the State of Colorado, all but the Green River and Cimarron River have their headwaters in that state. As of February 1, 2008, the U.S. Board on Geographic Names had identified 5,564 natural streams in the State of Colorado. Of this number, 147 larger streams (2.6%) were named "river" and 11 (0.2%) were named "rio". The vast majority of the Colorado streams (5082 or 91.3%) were named "creek". Of the remaining Colorado streams, 122 (2.2%) were named "arroyo", 60 (1.1%) were named "wash", 44 (0.8%) were named "fork", 18 (0.3%) were named "branch", 17 (0.3%) were named "brook", 17 (0.3%) were named "run", 15 (0.3%) were named "rito", 10 (0.2%) were named "slough", but not a single stream was named "stream".
List of rivers of Colorado | Notes
The following alphabetical list includes many important streams that flow through the State of Colorado, including all 158 named rivers. Where available, the total extent of the stream's drainage basin is shown after the name. The names of the 17 Colorado rivers with a drainage basin of more than 10,000 square kilometers (3,900 sq mi), about three times the area of Rhode Island, are shown in bold.
List of rivers of Colorado | Alphabetical list
Named tributaries of Elk Creek from source to mouth are Shingle Mill, Walker, Adams, Bennet, Cox, Salt, and Wehmeyer creeks followed by Dodge Canyon. Then come Asker, McClintock, Wise, Yoncalla, Pass, Post, and Billy creeks. Further downstream are Hardscrabble, Jack, Parker, Lancaster, Indian, and Brush creeks. Entering the lower reaches are Big Tom Folley, Hancock, and Little Tom Folley creeks.
Elk Creek (Umpqua River tributary) | Tributaries
Because the Colorado River flowed through very flat terrain, the course of the river varied over a wide area, being periodically diverted in one direction or another by silt deposits remaining after floods. Sometimes the river flowed into the Gulf of California, as it does today (no longer flows into the Gulf of California due to irrigation in the Imperial Valley and Mexicali Valley); other times it turned westward toward the Salton Sink. Each time the Salton Sink received the river flow, a large freshwater lake called Lake Cahuilla formed. The last Lake Cahuilla covered much of the Imperial, Coachella and Mexicali Valleys as late as 1450.
Algodones Dunes | History
It is to this newly introduced cycle of physiographic evolution that the deep canyons of the Plateau province are due. Thus the Virgin River, a northern tributary of the Colorado River, has cut a vertical slit, 1000 ft. deep, hardly wider at the top than at the bottom, in the heavy Triassic sandstones of southern Utah. However the most famous example is the Grand Canyon of Arizona, eroded by the Colorado river across the uplifted platform of Carboniferous limestone.
Intermontane Plateaus | Colorado Plattiary erosion landforms
The Colorado River is a major river in the Western United States, emptying into the Gulf of California. Rivers are listed upstream by the point they empty into the Colorado.
List of rivers of Utah | Colorado River
Downstream from there the canyon passes through a deep pool of water in a narrow slot canyon, merges with the main branch of Fortymile Gulch and two tributaries draining from the north, and then proceeds down to the Escalante River. Much of this lower section may now be under the surface of Lake Powell, depending on the level of the reservoir behind the Glen Canyon Dam.
Fortymile Gulch | Introduction
The following rivers are tributaries to the river Bâsca (from source to mouth):
Bâsca | Major river tributaries
It receives Heffin and Yellowjacket Creeks, both from the right, and at the confluence with the latter, flows past the town of Piedra and crosses under U.S. Highway 160. Its canyon widens into a valley, and flowing south-southeast alongside a ridge, the river receives Devil Creek from the left and receives Stollsteimer Creek from the left at Stollsteimer. The river then angles southwest, now running alongside State Highway 151. It enters Navajo Reservoir near the town of Arboles, near the New Mexico state line. Its confluence with the San Juan River, inside Navajo State Park, is drowned under the waters of the reservoir.
Piedra River (Colorado) | Course
Thunder River is a river entirely within the Grand Canyon National Park. It flows southeast from its source near the North Rim of the canyon to Tapeats Creek. The river is one of the shortest in the United States, and drops approximately over a series of waterfalls, making it the steepest river in the country. It is also a rare instance where a river is a tributary of a creek.
Thunder River (Tapeats Creek tributary) | Introduction
Prior to the creation of the reservoir, the Blacks Fork joined the Green River south of Green River, today the mouth of Blacks Fork is submerged by the reservoir. South of the dam it flows eastward, looping around the eastern tip of the Uinta Mountains going from Utah into northwestern Colorado and through Browns Park before turning west and then south into Dinosaur National Monument where it passes through the Canyon of the Lodore (Otherwise known as the Gates of Lodore) and is joined by the Yampa River at Steamboat Rock. It turns westward back into Utah along the southern edge of the Uintas in Whirlpool Canyon.
Green River (Colorado River tributary) | Description
Tributaries and sub-tributaries are hierarchically listed in order from the mouth of the Columbia River upstream. Major dams and reservoir lakes are also noted.
List of tributaries of the Columbia River | Introduction
The Blanco River gushes through canyons in the northeastern part of Reserva Nacional Cerro Castillo. The river corridor is a veritable geological wonder with a myriad of canyons composed of dark basalt, limestone, shale and sandstone. There is also the wonderful sight of Cerro Castillo (2675 m), highest peak in the region, thus named because it resembles a medieval castle.
Simpson River | Tributaries
At Hite the Hite Crossing Bridge – the only bridge over the Colorado for nearly – carries Utah State Route 95 over the river. Below here the Colorado is joined by the Dirty Devil River and begins to widen into Lake Powell, the giant reservoir formed by Glen Canyon Dam downstream. Lake Powell, a popular houseboating destination, is surrounded by the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area and receives over 2 million visitors each year despite its remote location. Before the dam was completed in 1966 the Colorado flowed through Glen Canyon, a sandstone gorge known for its colorful and intricately sculpted rock formations.
Course of the Colorado River | <a href="Utah">Utah</a>
The latter often produces heavy, highly localized floods on lower tributaries of the river, but does not often contribute significant volumes of runoff. Most of the annual runoff in the basin occurs with the melting of Rocky Mountains snowpack, which begins in April and peaks during May and June before exhausting in late July or early August. Flows at the mouth of the river have steadily declined since the beginning of the 20th century, and in most years after 1960 the Colorado River has run dry before reaching the Pacific Ocean. Irrigation, industrial, and municipal diversions, evaporation from reservoirs, natural runoff, and likely climate change, have all contributed to this substantial reduction in flow, threatening the water supply for the future.
Colorado River | Discharge
Named tributaries in downstream order from source to mouth are Cougar and Splintercat creeks, which enter from the ; Plaza and Squaw creeks, from the right, and Shining Creek, South Fork Roaring River, and Grouse Creek, all from the left. The South Fork is also part of the wild and scenic rivers system.
Roaring River (Clackamas River tributary) | Tributaries
The following rivers are tributaries to the river Cracăul Negru (from source to mouth):
Cracăul Negru | Tributaries
The Green, flowing from the Wind River Range of western Wyoming, drains in southwest Wyoming, northeast Utah and northwest Colorado. It is much longer than the Colorado above their confluence and carries a larger load of silt, though the Colorado has a slightly greater flow. Before an act of Congress changed the name in 1921 this confluence marked the official beginning of the Colorado River proper. The approximately of the Colorado above the confluence of the Green, including the entire section within Colorado, was known as the Grand River. Below the Green River the Colorado flows through Cataract Canyon, which contains some of its most difficult rapids.
Course of the Colorado River | <a href="Utah">Utah</a>
border, and runoff from these areas nourished abundant grassland communities in river valleys. Some arid regions of the watershed, such as the upper Green River valley in Wyoming, Canyonlands National Park in Utah and the San Pedro River valley in Arizona and Sonora, supported extensive reaches of grassland roamed by large mammals such as buffalo and antelope as late as the 1860s. Near Tucson, Arizona, "where now there is only powder-dry desert, the grass once reached as high as the head of a man on horse back". Rivers and streams in the Colorado basin were once home to 49 species of native fish, of which 42 were endemic.
Colorado River | Wildlife and plants