Los Pinos River

About

The Los Pinos River — 'the pines' in Spanish, and known locally as the Pine River — rises near Weminuche Pass in the San Juan Mountains and flows south through Vallecito Reservoir and the towns of Bayfield and Ignacio before crossing into New Mexico to join the San Juan River at Navajo Lake (Source: en.wikipedia.org). Its waters were harnessed by the Bureau of Reclamation's Pine River Project, whose Vallecito Dam — begun in 1938 and completed in 1941 — stores spring runoff for flood control and irrigation across the valley below (Source: waterinfo.org). The project lands span roughly 69,000 acres, of which about 16,000 are owned by the Southern Ute Indian Tribe, whose reservation the river crosses around Ignacio; below Vallecito Dam the Los Pinos runs as a well-known tailwater trout fishery (Source: waterinfo.org).