The area surrounding our campground is the headwaters of the Colorado River. About 12 miles North of us in the Rocky Mountain National Park is La Poudre Pass Lake (which isn’t a lake but just a low basin) and is where the Colorado River begins. (No we didn’t hike in 😉; I found this pic on the internet.) From here it flows 1450 miles through 11 National Parks before reaching the Gulf of California. It’s largest tributary is the Green River. The last 150 miles haven’t had any water flowing in it since the 1960’s.
The day we went up into the park we stopped at the Colorado River Trail and hiked in a bit. This was probably 8 miles or so north of camp toward La Poudre Pass.
The river flows past our campground on the East side and is very small. Maybe 20 feet across and 18″ deep.
After seeing so much of the Colorado in our travels from Lake Powell, Horseshoe Bend and The Grand Canyon on down to Lake Havasu and after growing up with the Mighty Colorado nearby, it was very interesting (to us anyway) to see its origin.
And you can always say that you walked across the Colorado. Not everyone can make that claim. Remember Westwater………….UGH