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15 choices. They can either proceed up the usually turbid North Fork or down the Gunnison toward Austin or they can, at many times, depending on flow conditions, ford the North Fork and proceed up the less turbid main Gunnison toward the Smith Fork. Although some private roads exist along the Gunnison below the North Fork junction, public access is quite limited in most river sections below there. Considerably more numbers of backwater areas, small irrigation ditches, and side channels exist below the North Fork junction, in contrast to the Gunnison Gorge above. Below Austin the Gunnison River is turbid, largely due to the turbid North Fork of the Gunnison and a considerable number of turbid return irrigation ditches from farms and orchards in the area. DAMS AND RESERVOIRS The three dams of the Curecanti Unit (Crystal, Morrow Point, and Blue Mesa) are all located in the Black Canyon of the Gunnison River upstream of the Gunnison National Monument (Fig. 1). Specifications for.the dams, reservoirs, and power plants are presented in Table 1. The uppermost dam, Blue Mesa, began storing water on October 25, 1965 and first attained maximum capacity in 1970. Morrow Point began storing water on January 24, 1968 and first attained maximum capacity November 20, 1968. It was not until early 1977 that Crystal Dam began storing water and it attained maximum capacity soon thereafter. Its powerplant has not yet been completed. Although all three dams have powerplants, Blue Mesa will be used primarily for flood control and water storage while Crystal Dam will be used to regulate the downstream flows produced by the releases through the high-capacity turbines of the Morrow Point powerplant. Prior to completion of Crystal Dam, Morrow Point turbines could not be operated