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<br />Groundhog Reservoir, the only major reservoir upstream of McPhee Reservoir, is located <br /> <br />about 25 miles north of Dolores, on Groundhog Creek, a tributary to West Dolores River, It was <br /> <br />originally constructed with a storage capacity of 11,000 acre-feet (ac-ft) about 100 years ago, to <br /> <br />provide water for irrigation. Later, the reservoir was enlarged to hold 21,700 ac-ft. Groundhog <br /> <br />Reservoir is stocked with rainbow trout, as well as native and Snake River cutthroat trout. The <br /> <br />dam is owned and operated for irrigation by the Montezuma Valley Irrigation Company. Fishing <br /> <br />is regulated by the Colorado Department of Fish and Game. <br /> <br />Vegetation in the Dolores Basin include Gambel oak. Pinon-juniper, Ponderosa pine, <br /> <br />Douglas tir, Cottonwood. sagebrush, and grassland. The immediate shoreline of the reservoir is <br /> <br />predominately Pinon-juniper, oakbrush. grassland and sagebrush, Ponderosa pine and Douglas fir <br /> <br />are found along the northern end of McPhee Reservoir, spreading up to the timberline to the east. <br /> <br />Cottonwood is predominant at the upper end of the reservoir (at Dolores) with scattered patches <br /> <br />along tributary drainages to the reservoir. Below the McPhee Dam are areas of dry land cultivated <br /> <br />fields, irrigated cropland and sagebrush. <br />5.2 Topography. The topography of the Dolores River Basin varies from deeply <br /> <br />incised river and stream canyons with isolated buttes and mesas in the lowland areas, to large <br /> <br />dissected pediments and rugged topography in the border areas. (See Plate 2.) The basin between <br /> <br />Dolores and McPhee Reservoir is chiefly low tabletop mesa temlinated near the reservoir shore <br /> <br />by short, steep bluffs. The valley 1100t is relatively flat above Dolores for 20 to 25 miles <br /> <br />upstream: the watershed is t 5 to 20 miles wide. The terrain steepens abruptly above the valley <br /> <br />floor into mountainous slopes topped around the basin rim by individual peaks rising to between <br /> <br />12.000 and 14,000 feet. Among them are Mount Wilson 14,246 feet; EI Diente Peak, 14.159 feet; <br />and San Miguel Peak. 13,752 feet (all located around the northeast basin rim); and Hesperus <br /> <br />7 <br />