The Blue River is a tributary of the
Colorado River
The Colorado River ( es, Río Colorado) 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. s ...
, approximately long,
[U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data]
The National Map
, accessed March 18, 2011 in the
U.S. state
In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...
of
Colorado
Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...
.
It rises in southern
Summit County, on the western side of the
continental divide in the
Ten Mile Range, near
Quandary Peak
Quandary Peak is the highest summit of the Tenmile Range in the Rocky Mountains of North America and is the most commonly climbed fourteener in Colorado. It has nearly the same elevation as Castle Peak and Mount Evans. It lies in Summit County ...
. It flows northwards past
Blue River and
Breckenridge, then through the
Dillon Reservoir near
Dillon
Dillon may refer to:
People
*Dillon (surname)
* Dillon (given name)
* Dillon (singer) (born 1988), Brazilian singer
*Viscount Dillon, a title in the Peerage of Ireland
Places Canada
*Dillon, Saskatchewan
United States
*Dillon Beach, Californi ...
. The west portal for the "Roberts Tunnel" is at the base of Dillon Reservoir. The Roberts Tunnel is a trans-basin diversion, built by Denver Water in 1962, that diverts water under the Continental Divide from the Colorado River basin into the South Platte River Basin. The east portal is approximately one mile upstream of
Grant, Colorado
Grant is an unincorporated community and a U.S. Post Office in Park County, Colorado, United States.
Description
The community is located in foothills of the Front Range in the upper valley of the North Fork South Platte River, approximately ...
.
[Park County Local History Archives. Roberts Tunnel]
Photo 1439, accessed June 13, 2018.
North of Dillon, the river flows north-northwest along the eastern slope of the
Gore Range
The Gore Range (elevation approximately 12,000 ft) is a mountain range in the Rocky Mountains of north central Colorado in the United States.
Geography
The range runs for approximately 60 miles (100 km) northwest-to-southeast, through ...
and joins the Colorado River at
Kremmling.
The
Green Mountain Dam
Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a combin ...
, upstream from Kremmling, forms the
Green Mountain Reservoir
Green Mountain Reservoir lies at the northern end of Summit County, Colorado along the Blue River. The Green Mountain Dam was built between 1938 and 1942 by the United States Bureau of Reclamation. The reservoir and its dam store water to benefi ...
, providing
hydroelectric power
Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies one sixth of the world's electricity, almost 4500 TWh in 2020, which is more than all other renewable sources combined an ...
and diversionary water for
irrigation
Irrigation (also referred to as watering) is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow crops, landscape plants, and lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,000 years and has been devel ...
, as part of the
Colorado-Big Thompson Project. The dam is a project of the
United States Bureau of Reclamation
The Bureau of Reclamation, and formerly the United States Reclamation Service, is a federal agency under the U.S. Department of the Interior, which oversees water resource management, specifically as it applies to the oversight and opera ...
.
See also
*
List of rivers of Colorado
This is a list of streams in the U.S. State of Colorado.
__TOC__
Alphabetical list
The following alphabetical list includes many important streams that flow through the State of Colorado, including all 158 named rivers. Where available, t ...
*
List of tributaries of the Colorado River
References
External links
* of the town of Blue River
Rivers of Colorado
Rivers of Summit County, Colorado
Tributaries of the Colorado River in Colorado
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