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. sta ...

, 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 sov ...

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 the ...

. It rises in southern Summit County, on the western side of the

continental divide A continental divide is a drainage divide on a continent such that the drainage basin on one side of the divide feeds into one ocean or sea, and the basin on the other side either feeds into a different ocean or sea, or else is endorheic, not c ...

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 Dillon Reservoir, sometimes referred to as Lake Dillon, is a large fresh water reservoir located in Summit County, Colorado, United States, south of I-70 and bordered by the towns of Frisco, Silverthorne, and Dillon. It is a reservoir for t ...

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, Californ ...

. 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, approximatel ...

.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, 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 and diversionary water for irrigation, as part of the Colorado-Big Thompson Project. The dam is a project of the United States Bureau of Reclamation.

References

External links

* of the town of Blue River Rivers of Colorado Rivers of Summit County, Colorado Tributaries of the Colorado River in Colorado {{Colorado-river-stub

See also

References

External links