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<br />3.3.3 Colorado River <br /> <br />Basin Descriotion- The Colorado River rises in MiddlB Park, ~s source being on the east <br />slope of Mount Richtofen, which has a height of 13,000 feet on the Contintal Divide. <br />Throughout most of ~s course in Colorado, the river flows through canyons and narrow <br />valleys. Near Palisade, !I enters Grand Valley, then flows to the Colorado-Utah State line. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />Floodina Characteristics: Since records were started at Grand Junction in 1897, the <br />Colorado has not been subject to flood, as that term is generally understood. The rainfall <br />is too scanty to affect thf! river materially, and the high water that occurs annually due to <br />melting mountain snow in May and June is characterized by a gradual risB and fall, <br />depending on the amoUlll of snow and the temperaturB. The tributary drainage basins <br />above Roaring Fork, Iik,ewise, are not subject 10 severe or flash floods. Cloudbursts <br />sometimes occur in this area, but the resulting floods do not have as high rates of runoff <br />as similar floods at lowelr alt~udes. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />3.3.4 Rio Grande <br /> <br />Basin Descriotion- The Hio Grande drains the high mountain park known as the San Luis <br />Valley which has an allibJde between 7,400 and 7,800 feet. The basin is bounded by the <br />almost continuous ring 011 mountains that separate ~ from the Arkansas River Basin on the <br />east and the Colorado River Basin on the north and west. From the mouth of South Fork, <br />Rio Grande to Del Norte, at the edge of the valley proper, the Rio Grande has an average <br />slope of 17 feet per mile; from Del Norte to the Colorado-New Mexico State line, the slope <br />decreases from 17 to 7 'Ieet per mile. <br /> <br />Flood Characteristics- The Rio Grande Basin, owing to ~s shellered pos~ion and its <br />relatively high allitude, is less subject to destructive floods than any other major basin in <br />Colorado, except that of the Colorado River. <br /> <br />3.4 References <br /> <br />Follansbee, R., and Sawyer, L.R.. USGS. Water Supply Paper 997 - Floods in Colorado. <br />1948. <br /> <br />USACE, Omaha District. Compendium of Hydrologic Information - A Supplement to Water <br />and Related Land Resources Management Study for Metropolitan Denver, Volume V, <br />Appendix H - Hydrology 1980c <br /> <br />? <br /> <br />, <br /> <br />Colorado Flood <br />Hydrology ManulJ:1 <br /> <br />3.4 <br /> <br />fR'Ff <br />