San Miguel Watershed

 
 

Located in southwestern Colorado, the 1,550 square mile San Miguel Watershed extends northwest from the San Miguel River’s headwaters above Telluride down to the Dolores River near Uravan and the Utah state line.

San Miguel and Montrose Counties contain the majority of the basin, with a small fraction overlapping Dolores, Mesa, and Ouray counties. The San Miguel River is one of the few larger rivers in the upper Colorado River basin without a mainstem dam. This remote river runs for 80 miles, starting near 14,000 ft. in the San Juan Mountains, carving into the Colorado Plateau region around the southern flank of the Uncompahgre Plateau, and ending at its 4,800 ft. elevation confluence with the Dolores River. Diverse climate and geological characteristics creates a rich mosaic of stream and river types, vegetation communities, and aquatic and riparian ecosystems throughout the watershed.