Dolores River
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The Dolores River, a tributary of the Colorado, is shown highlighted on a map of the western United States]]
The Dolores River is a tributary of the Colorado River, approximately 250 mi (402 km) long, in the U.S. states of Colorado and Utah.
It rises in southwestern Colorado near Dolores Peak and Mount Wilson in the San Miguel Mountains. It flows southwest, past the town of Dolores, where it turns, flowing north and northwest. It flows through the Dolores River Canyon before receiving the San Miguel River (incidentally, both the Dolores and the San Miguel have their headwaters to either side of Lizard Head Pass) in Montrose County and crossing into Utah, where it joins the Colorado in Grand County near the Fisher Towers.
The river was explored and possibly named by Juan Maria Antonio Rivera during an 1765 expedition from Santa Fe.
The Dolores is navigable by rafts and kayaks (up to class IV)from Macphee reservoir to its confluence with the Colorado. When water is restricted from the reservoir it may be possible to boat down stream from the San Miguel River. However the river is extensively used for irrigation and during low water years is wholly unnavigable.
In high-runoff years, the section from Bradfield Ranch near Cahone, Colorado down to Slickrock, Colorado, offers outstanding scenery, excellent camping, and terrific rapids for inflatables and kayaks. The section from Slickrock to Bedrock, Colorado goes through the goosenecks of a spectacular sandstone canyon with several mostly class II rapids.
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