Platte Canyon

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The Platte Canyon is a deep, narrow, scenic gorge on the

The term Platte Canyon is used varyingly to apply to the entire section of the South Platte and the North Fork South Platte in the mountains between South Park and the eastern plains. It also is often applied to the communities along the North Fork near Bailey. The narrowest part of the canyon is a remote and roadless gorge (Waterton Canyon) approximately 8 miles (13 km) long, at its lower extremity between the hamlet of South Platte and Kassler, where it emerges from the mountains. In this section, the canyon has walls that rise approximately 1000 ft (300 m) from the river bed. The river drops from an elevation of approximately 6100 ft at South Platte at the head of the gorge to approximately 5500 ft at the canyon mouth. In this area is a diversion dam that backs up water in the South Platte River, allowing some of it to be sent down the High Line Canal.

Railroad

In the middle and late 1870s, the

In the late 1920s, the Denver Board of Water Commissioners proposed building a dam to inundate the canyon, but the request was turned down by the Public Utilities Commission. A 1.7 mile section of Waterton Canyon was inundated by the Strontia Springs Reservoir, completed in 1983 as part of the Foothills Project for water diversion.

39°29′06″N 105°06′20″W / 39.48500°N 105.10556°W / 39.48500; -105.10556