Photos and videos: Paonia Reservoir, December 2020

This page features drone-captured photos and videos of Paonia Reservoir on Colorado’s Western Slope.

Located 16 miles northeast of Paonia, the reservoir lies along Muddy Creek, upstream from the confluence with Anthracite Creek. Those two creeks form the North Fork of the Gunnison River, a tributary of the Colorado River. The project was built to provide irrigation water, flood control, and recreation benefits.

When Paonia Dam was completed in 1962, the reservoir had a capacity of 18,150 acre-feet, but sedimentation has reduced its storage to 15,600 acre-feet, according to the Bureau of Reclamation. See this High Country News story for more on the sedimentation issue at Paonia and other reservoirs.

DateDecember 25, 2020
LocationPaonia Reservoir, Colorado (map)
PhotographerMitch Tobin
OrganizationThe Water Desk at the University of Colorado Boulder
RightsFree to reuse under Creative Commons license, with credit to Mitch Tobin, The Water Desk

Selected images from the gallery

Click to enlarge

To use these images

Please read and consent to the terms and license below for access to the download page.

The Water Desk’s photo and video resources are part of our efforts to aid and enrich news coverage of Western water issues. Our imagery is shot by professional photojournalists and is available for free reuse under a Creative Commons noncommercial license.

To help us continue to offer this free material, we ask that you please:
  1. Credit the original photographer and the Water Desk as the source
  2. Email us a link to the published story at waterdesk@colorado.edu
  3. Consider sending The Water Desk your ideas for future content that we could add to the library
  4. Keep supporting professional photojournalists by hiring them for assignments

I understand and consent

< Show related galleries