Finding the Beginning of the Colorado River

right now i'm in the rocky mountains and today we're going to be going to where the colorado river begins hey everyone welcome to sidetrack adventures my name is steve currently we're in colorado on the eastern side of the rocky mountains and as a matter of fact those mountains way off in the distance behind me are the rockies recently the colorado river has been in the news a lot so today we're going to head up into the rockies and see if we can find the beginning of the colorado river oh and our starting elevation for this trip is at 5171 feet the colorado river starts in the rocky mountains never summer mountains in the state of colorado and travels over 1400 miles to mexico on its journey it travels through five u.s states two mexican states and if you include all its tributaries 11 national parks known for its dramatic canyons and white water rapids over the last few decades drought and increasing demands for water has strained the river that is a vital source of water for over 40 million people the colorado river goes through some of the most beautiful scenery in the united states and we want to visit the place where this important river begins [Music] so after a windy and somewhat slow going drive we've made it up to colorado highway 14. we're at about 6100 feet in elevation and this river behind me is not the colorado river this is the puda river we have not yet crossed the continental divide so this river flows towards the atlantic and not the pacific we still have about 50 miles to go before we get to where the colorado river begins once we arrived at colorado state route 14 we took the highway as it follows along the path of the pooter river as it heads further up into the rockies towards the never summer mountains and the continental divide colorado state route 14 wasn't fully paved until the 1960s and it still feels very remote through the mountains on this drive there were very few other cars on the road despite the day being absolutely gorgeous the drive on this highway featured some amazing scenery as we climbed further up the mountains this is such an amazingly beautiful drive [Music] so we've taken colorado highway 14 as it follows the pooter river up into the rockies and i hope i'm pronouncing that right i keep wanting to say poudre river but we talked to a ranger earlier and they told us it's pronounced pooter so we're just going to go with that but we've gone as far as paved roads will take us we're now on long draw road which i've read online is a well-maintained road but they do recommend high clearance vehicles and it also is apparently a great place to see moose which would be great because we haven't seen any wildlife on this on this trip yet so hopefully we see some moose today but we're currently at 9500 feet in elevation so let's head down long draw road and see if we can get closer to the start of the colorado river long draw road is about 13 miles long and is only open seasonally it was well maintained and i don't think a high clearance vehicle was necessary at all at least not on this day the road was smoother than some paved roads we've been on the scenery was fantastic and we did actually see some moose along the road too [Music] i'm actually surprised we only saw these two as everywhere we looked there were meadows that looked like prime moose habitat the only other wildlife we saw was an eagle a marmot and a number of chipmunks long draw road does have a couple of campgrounds along the way and the road passes by a couple of lakes including the long draw reservoir the reservoir was built in 1927 to store water from the grand ditch and drains into laputer pass creek after passing long draw reservoir we've about arrived at the end of the road [Music] so we've made it as far as the road will take us now we have to walk the rest of the way where i'm standing now is the boundary for rocky mountain national park so that's rocky mountain national park behind me as a matter of fact this sign here is where rocky mountain national park begins and i'm also standing on the continental divide any water that falls in front of me will head towards the atlantic ocean and any water that falls behind me will head towards the pacific so let's start heading down this trail and get to where the colorado river begins [Music] the first thing that we reach is the grand ditch now the grand ditch is actually man-made and because of that water on the western side of the continental divide actually flows to the east in the grand ditch construction on the grand ditch began in 1890 and because it intercepts a percentage of the water that would normally flow to the colorado river it has been somewhat controversial over the last century the grand ditch is listed on the national register of historic places so this valley behind me is the colorado river there's not a lot of water here right now just a small stream going through but some of this water will travel 1400 miles all the way to mexico now we're going to continue on down the valley a little bit more towards the continental divide and see if we can find the actual start of the colorado river [Music] so we're at an interesting place here where we can really see the continental divide in action right behind me is long draw creek and this feeds into the puda river and as you can see the water is flowing towards the east but if we walk right over here [Music] [Music] so [Music] the water here is flowing towards the west and this is the beginning of the colorado river the river that created the grand canyon and used to go all the way to the pacific ocean via the gulf of california while most of the water in this creek will end up being intercepted by the grand ditch just a few feet away from it somewhat hidden by grass in this meadow there is a plaque as a monument to signify this place as the start of the colorado river [Music] it's amazing to think that this is where the colorado river begins its 1400 mile journey this is such an important river to the american west and to think that this small stream right here is the beginning of it [Music] so that's our look at the beginning of the colorado river thank you so much for watching if you enjoyed the video please give it a thumbs up consider subscribing and we'll see you next week

Channel: Sidetrack Adventures

Views: 563,332

Keywords: Colorado River, Headwaters of Colorado River, Start of the Colorado River, Beginning of the Colorado River, Colorado State Route 14, Rustic Colorado, Rocky Mountain National Park, Poudre Pass, Grand Ditch, Long Draw Reservoir, Long Draw Road, Rocky Mountain National Park hikes, Colorado roadtrips, Colorado travel, Rocky Mountain drives, Rocky Mountains, Never Summer Mountains, colorado river basin, colorado river drought, the colorado river

Id: KKmP06eLMq0

Length: 9min 5sec (545 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 24 2022