WSP06130

• File Number: 8200.760
• Description: Yampa River General
• State: CO
• Basin: Yampa/White
• Water Division: 6
• Date: 2/26/1957
• Author: BOR
• Title: Yampa-White Project - Colorado Utah and Wyoming - Reconnaissance Report - February 1957
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

002300

C:lAPI'ER I

GENERAL DISCussIorru

.

This runoff varies greatly from year to year, the maximum yearly runoff
for most streams beinG about four to f'i ve times larger than the minimum
yearly runoff.

Yampa River

The Ysmpa River has its headwaters on the eastern end of the l-lhi te
River Plateau. It is fed by numerous small tributaries that drain adjoin-
inG areas of the plateau and the western slopes of the Park Range. In
its upper course the river is turtlUlent and runs for many miles through
rocky defiles and narrow valleys. It follows a northerly course along
the foothills of the Pe.rk Range and, after emerging from the foothills,
traverses the open country that lies toward the west. Its general direc-
tion is then westward through the Axial Basin toward the east end of the
Uinta Range. The river cuts its way in a short canyon through hard rocks
that form the northern flank of Juniper Mountain. The canyon is about 2~
miles long and its walls are a few hundred feet in ms;y.imum height above
the streambed.

.

After leaving Juniper Canyon, the YWl!Pa River flows for about 32
miles through rolling sage-covered lands to Cross Hountain, through which
it has cut another canyon. This canyon is about :3 miles long and is a
narrow defile with almost vertical rock valls which reach maximum heights
above the river of a thousand feet or more. For II miles below Cross
~lountain canyon, the river has a peaceful course throu~ Lily Par]{. Here
it receives the waters of the Little Snake River, the last tributary of
importance. The remainder of the Ysmpa River I s course is through the nar-
row Blue Nountain Canyon, which extends westward 45 miles through the
1.:l'turned strata at the eastern end of the Uinta Range and which joins the
canyon of the Green River near the Colorado-Utah line. A large :part of
the Blue Nountain Canyon is included in the Dinosaur National Nonument.

The Ysmpa River has three principal tributaries, the Elk River,
Williams Fork River, and the Little Snake River. It also has numerous
smaller tributaries, many of which are only intermittent streams.

The Elk River rises in the Hahns Peak region about 25 miles north of
Steamboat SprinGs, Colo, It flows southward through the once famous
Hahns Pe~{ placer mining district and a broad agricultural valley and
empties into the Yampa IU ver about 7 miles west of Steamboat Springs.

lllkhead Creek joins the Yampa about 6 miles above Crai[\, Colo., and
Fortification Creek enters at Craig. Both of the~~ stream~ rise in the
I\lkhead l-Iountains and flow southward through a rO+ting prairie reGion.

.

T'oe \Iilliams Fork River, the principal tributary from the south,
empties into the Yampa a fe" miles below Craig. It rises on the \1hite
River Plateau a short distance from the origdn of the Yampa River and
fl011S northllesterly along the south side of the Williams Fork I~ountains
to its junction with the Yampa.

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