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Lower Beaver Creek, Colorado
 
Our hiking destination seen from the parking lot: the valley with the trees at left center
 
Beaver Creek along our route
 
Beaver Creek at the end of our trail
 
The diversion canal goes to the right with a makeshift dam on the left

 

This all started with my son, Jeff, suggesting a hike into the Beaver Creek Wilderness on a warm summer day. It didn't work out like either of us planned. He thought he'd leave me by the side of the trail while he climbed a mountain or something. But, as is clear in the picture on the left, the trail crosses the creek at this point and he wasn't sure about crossing it with this much water flowing! And I never figured on creating a Tabblo about where the water goes!

 

Beaver Creek begins its life on the south slopes of Pikes Peak, about 15 miles away from where we were. And we were abut 20 miles from where it joins the Arkansas River on its attempted journey to the Gulf of Mexico. It never has a chance of making it.

 

It was a nice (and easy) hike for a couple of miles or so with lots of things to take pictures of.

 

The dam on this canal is set up to only allow flow into the irrigation ditch when flow exceeds a certain point.  The gate returns most of the flow to the creek. Colorado water law is complex and every drop is accounted for and metered. The hayfields which got this water were obviously "junior" in water rights so only got "excess flow".

 
The canal is more boring than the creek!
 
Beaver Creek on the left of our trail
 
And the canal on the right
 
Jeff (aka Ansel) getting in position for either a dramatic water level picture or a bath in cold water! (He made it OK.)
 
He was in the set of rapids farthest upstream here
 
The end of the canal at the diversion dam
 
The dam with the gate and an overflow pipe
 
The return flow from the dam gate
 
A splitter box in the next field directing the water from the overflow pipe
 
The pipe from the splitter box crossing a ravine (below the telephone pole "bridge")
 
The irrigation ditch in a hay field into which the splitter box flows
 
Beaver Creek from a bridge miles below the wilderness area

The scene changes as we chase the water down the creek. I had never explored where the water disappeared from the creek; I only knew it did. We finally found how to get to where we could at least see the dam from a road marked "Private Road -- Residents Only".

 

It is a bit off-topic to include Ansel's (I mean Jeff's) climbing down a 100' cliff on private property to get closer for pictures while a hawk screamed at him the whole time! Besides, it sounds more dramatic than the pictures were! The road visible below the dam is gated otherwise we could have driven to the thing!

 

According to Goggle satellite photos, the water flows into a pipeline from the dam and goes under a ridge for miles before being discharged into the concrete-lined canal.

 
The diversion dam on Beaver Creek about 10 miles from the Arkansas River
 
The big diversion dam on Beaver Creek
 
The "flow" below the dam; they take it all

Both these dams are privately owned by the Penrose Land and Water Company which also developed the town of Penrose to sell lots. They now provide the irrigation and drinking water for the unincorporated community of about 4000 people. The lots are all 5 acres with water theoretically available for each one.

 

As large as the reservoir looks here (It is actually above normal level.), it nearly ran dry year before last (2005) after several dry years. All irrigation in Penrose was disallowed, ruining several orchards, hay growers, and a greenhouse business.

 

There is a saying in Colorado: "Whiskey is fer drinkin' and water is fer fightin' ". During the dry years, this is so true. Only now we use lawyers. :)

 
The canal from Beaver Creek valley to Brush Hollow Creek valley (with some erosion damage)
 
The dam at Brush Hollow
 
Brush Hollow Reservoir -- a good fishing lake
 
The wet well below the dam where the water is discharged from the reservoir for irrigation in Penrose, Colorado
COMMENTS
Jerii said at 11:42 p.m. on Aug 1, 2007:
Interest info about Colorado water. There are some lovely pcitures of this beautiful state here and I had to laugh at your son balancing on those rocks in the middle of the creek. Glad it all turned out well. A camera is way to special to have fall into the drink.
Lifequest22 said at 12:01 a.m. on Aug 2, 2007:
Great tabblo. Super pix. Beautiful scenery.
Wlk68 said at 7:30 a.m. on Aug 2, 2007:
A lovely and informative Tabblo. Looks like you and Jeff had some good father/son time together.
AnotherSteve said at 12:31 p.m. on Aug 2, 2007:
Great Tabblo!
ElZorroTOX said at 4:57 p.m. on Aug 2, 2007:
I liked Jeff's pic in the middle of the stream.
Pkeener said at 11:56 p.m. on Aug 2, 2007:
Wow, this is so great. Great Tabblo, Charlie. Thank you!
Rheap said at 7:06 p.m. on Aug 11, 2007:
Amazing tabblo full of superb photographs, and also extremely well documented..
CLofromCO said at 3:50 p.m. on Jun 25, 2008:
Great Pics guys. I live in the valley you drove through to get to the creek. It is actually Upper Beaver Creek. Lower Beaver Creek is off 115. You should have seen it 2 years ago when we had the flood.
Klakken said at 3:09 p.m. on Jul 28, 2008:
I have lived in Penrose for 17 years. Actually, we had plenty of water in 2005. it was the big drought of 2001/ 2002 that irrigation water was shut off for that summer. (2002) Ironically, from July 2006 to July 2007 Penrose recieved over 35" of rain, 5 1/2 of that in one large storm that produced quite a flood that took out bridges on 115 and county road 127. You could not reach the area where you hiked for many months because of washed out roads. Also, for interest, the area were you hiked, has more mountian lions then anywhere else in colorado. Definitly a area of extremes. Beautiful pictures.
Oldbogus said at 1:26 p.m. on Jul 29, 2008:
Klakken: Thanks for the input! It's always good to hear from the locals who keep my facts straight! I sent your response to my son so he'll know he could have become one with nature! :)


CLofromCO: I probably should have called the Tabblo just "Beaver Creek". But was thinking of the stretch up to Skagway Reservoir from where we hiked as the "upper"portion.
CLofromCO said at 7:15 p.m. on Jul 30, 2008:
It seems this area use to be a feature area for Wild Kingdom when filming mountain lion stories. There is still a large population of cats here of various kinds. Since the area has more private land the cats can "hide" out in the ranch areas of private land. Late last hunting season, 4 cats were spotted running the ridge near the geological camp. There were several hunters with their dogs tracking them. If you come this way in the winter after a fresh snow fall you can find tracks crossing the road in many different areas. In the ranch where I live is an area that borders BLM that has a large population of bobcats. Wonderful creatures too see.
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