Colorado River Headwaters

Looking downstream at the headwaters of the Colorado River in Rocky Mountain National Park. Here the Colorado meanders across a broad glacial valley bottom lined with wet meadows and beaver ponds. The orange conifers are infested by mountain pine beetles. The straight tan line on the hillslope at upper right is the Grand Ditch, which diverts water from the Colorado River across the continental divide and into Long Draw Reservoir and La Poudre Pass Creek, one of the headwaters of the South Platte River.