The Colorado River

2026-03-07 • 2 min read

A quantitative essay on an existential crisis.

The Colorado River is a 1,450 mile long ribbon of life that flows through the Southwestern United States before finding the ocean at the northern tip of Mexico's Gulf of California.

The watershed of the Colorado River encompasses parts of seven states and two countries. Within the United States, the river has been divided into two legally defined entities: the States of the Upper Division consisting of Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming and the States of the Lower Division consisting of Arizona, California, and Nevada.

GIS data sourced from the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy's Colorado River Basin GIS Open Data Portal

United States Bureau of Reclamation Lake Powell daily elevation obesrvations.

LMAO This is a margin note.

Legal Landscape

Colorado River CompactColorado River Compact, November 24, 1922.

The Colorado River Compact divided the Colorado River watershed into two distinct divisions - the States of the Upper Division consisting of Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming and the States of the Lower Division consisting of Arizona, California, and Nevada.

Article I

Boulder Canyon Project ActBoulder Canyon Project Act, 1928.

Arizona v. California

Indigenous Tribes

Climate

Lake Powell

A Trend

This is the Lake Powell elevation time-series line that inspired this whole exploration.

The Glen Canyon Dam