This page features photos of the Green River at the Gates of Lodore in Dinosaur National Monument in northwest Colorado.
The Green River is the most significant tributary of the Colorado River. At the Gates of Lodore, the river enters a steep-walled canyon that’s a popular area for rafting trips.
The area received its name during John Wesley Powell’s 1869 expedition when one member of the group, Andy Hall, was reminded of a poem, “The Cataract of Lodore,” by Robert Southey.
Some of the rocks in the area are from the Precambrian and more than a billion years old.
Downstream in Dinosaur National Monument, the Echo Park Dam was proposed in the 1950s as part of the Colorado River Storage Project. Opposition from environmentalists stopped the proposal, which would have flooded the entire Lodore Canyon, but the compromise led to the construction of Glen Canyon Dam in northern Arizona.
| Date | September 2020 |
| Location | Gates of Lodore, Colorado (map) |
| Credit | Mitch Tobin/The Water Desk |
| Rights | Free to reuse under Creative Commons license. |
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