Know before you goFlood Warning · Flood WatchUpdated Oct 24, 2026
- Flood Warning until Sat, Oct 24, 3:45 PM MDT
- Flood Watch until Sun, Oct 25, 12:00 PM MDT
Live conditions at Vallecito
Live readings
Every number on this page comes from a public agency and refreshes every fifteen minutes.
As of 12:02 p.m. on October 24, 2026, Vallecito Lake was 52° and partly cloudy, the reservoir was 79% full, and its inflow creeks were running a combined 2,420 cubic feet per second, per the National Weather Service, the Bureau of Reclamation and USGS. Snapshot only; the live cards below are newer.
Sources: USGS · NWS · USBR/USACE · NIFC · CDOT, plus the lake weather station — refreshed every 15 minutes · How we verify
Put live conditions on your home screen
Opens straight to this page, full-screen, like an app. Free, no app store.
Weather right now
Source: —.
About this data
What the lakeside station is reading this minute. The primary reading comes from the Vallecito Reservoir weather station when it's live; the National Weather Service supplies the forecast and serves as a fallback when the lakeside station goes quiet.
Right now
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The days ahead
The forecast lives on its own page: hour by hour through tomorrow, seven days out, and the high country read separately from the lake. Blended from several models, corrected against the lakeside station, and graded against it every day.
Tonight at the Lake
Sunrise, sunset, the moon, stargazing, and tomorrow's first bite window.
About this data
Figured on your device from sun and moon math for the lake, plus a look at the next few days. No live data.
Reading tonight's sky…
Active alerts
Everything in force right now, most serious first.
About this data
The fire-restriction stage and the NWS alerts come from the same feed as the dashboard tile, so they always match.
Hunting season is open
Archery, muzzleloader and rifle hunters are out September through November.
Hiking? Wear blaze orange or another bright color, keep dogs leashed and close, and expect hunters and horse trailers at the trailheads. Orange isn't required for hikers, just smart.
Hunting? With any firearm license, or bowhunting during a rifle season, Colorado requires at least 500 square inches of solid daylight fluorescent orange or pink above the waist, plus an orange or pink hat visible from all directions. Camo patterns don't count.
And yes, pink is legal. The elk aren't judging, and your hunting partner will spot you from the next ridge.
National Weather Service alerts
- Loading…
On the drive: US 160, Durango→Bayfield
Fire restrictions
New — the full guide: Fire restrictions & campfire safety. What each stage means, how to have a safe campfire, fire-free alternatives, and how to report a fire.
Wildfire activity
Full fire map, perimeters and incident detail: Wildfire watch . Official write-ups: InciWeb; real-time alerts: Watch Duty.
About this data
Incident count and nearest fire within 50 miles of the lake, from the NIFC WFIGS feed.
Within 50 miles
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Stay aware
Smoke and closures can change fast in fire season. Check before you tow a boat up, and have an exit plan — there's effectively one paved route in (CR 501; the Getting Here page has the route and the Florida Road alternate).
Air quality & wildfire smoke
Live Air Quality Index (AQI) for the nearest EPA reporting area, the next-day smoke outlook, and what to do when the valley fills with smoke.
Right now
Sources: PurpleAir community sensor · EPA correction applied (when a nearby sensor is live); AirNow (EPA) regulatory monitor, nearest reporting area · Fire & Smoke Map
Next day or two
Trust your eyes and nose alongside the number — smoke at the lake can differ from the reading.
Where the two readings come from, the smoke-forecast maps, and what to do on a smoke day: smoke & air quality
Sources: AirNow (EPA) AQI & smoke guidance; CDPHE wildfire-smoke health advice. See how we verify.
Vallecito Reservoir
Percent of full pool. It falls through late summer as the dam releases irrigation water: see streamflow.
About this data
How full the reservoir is right now, shown as a percentage of full pool (the reservoir's full capacity), about 129,700 acre-feet. The level reflects inflow minus the dam's irrigation releases.
Storage and pool elevation come from USBR Hydrodata (the Bureau of Reclamation's own daily reservoir data), with USACE CWMS and USBR RISE as fallbacks — measured against the reservoir's ~129,700 acre-foot capacity. (The old USGS reservoir gauge 09353000 is stale and no longer used.) Reclamation updates this daily; occasional multi-day gaps happen on their side, and we flag the reading as a few days old when that occurs.
Storage
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Lake level over time
Bureau of Reclamation Hydrodata · daily record since 1941 · today’s reading updates every 15 min.
Why the lake rises and falls every year — droughts, record fills, and the spillway problem: the full 85-year story
What it means
Low water pulls ramps and changes where fish hold; high water after a big snow year can cover the day-use areas where people swim at the north end. The marina (970) 884-7000 has the day-to-day read.
Can I launch today?
Ramp season May 1–Oct 31; for today's actual ramp status call the marina, (970) 884-7000. Paperwork, inspection and the full walkthrough: Launching your boat
Water into the lake, and the river below the dam
Each card opens the streamflow page: the full record for all three waters.
About this data
The two creeks feeding the lake and the dam’s release are in cubic feet per second (cfs); the Los Pinos River below the dam is in feet. Inflow is USGS instantaneous discharge at 09352900 (Vallecito Creek) and 09352800 (the Pine River above the reservoir); the river below the dam is the National Weather Service’s LPVC2 gauge, published in feet only, so nothing here converts one into the other. All live values are provisional: published but not yet reviewed. USGS’s statistics behind “normal” run 1963–2025 and leave out the October 2025 flood, so they understate what October can do; the streamflow page draws that gap. Neither inflow gauge has a published flood stage.
Outflow is the irrigation release to the Pine River Project, which is why the lake falls through late summer: how the lake fills and falls.
Rain & snow at the lake
What actually fell at the north end of the lake, read by hand from a standard 4-inch rain gauge at 7 AM every day by a volunteer with CoCoRaHS, the national volunteer network whose reports the National Weather Service uses alongside radar. For what is on the way, see the forecast.
The daily numbers
| Morning of | Rain + melted snow | New snow |
|---|---|---|
| Sat, Oct 24 | 0.31 in | |
| Fri, Oct 23 | 1.72 in | |
| Thu, Oct 22 | 1.55 in | |
| Wed, Oct 21 | 0.01 in | |
| Tue, Oct 20 | 0.03 in | |
| Mon, Oct 19 | 0.02 in | |
| Sun, Oct 18 | 0.00 in | 0.0 in |
| Sat, Oct 17 | 0.00 in | 0.0 in |
| Fri, Oct 16 | 0.00 in | 0.0 in |
| Thu, Oct 15 | 0.38 in | Trace |
| Wed, Oct 14 | 1.68 in | |
| Tue, Oct 13 | 0.63 in | |
| Mon, Oct 12 | 0.38 in | |
| Sun, Oct 11 | 0.22 in |
Station CO-LP-149 (“Bayfield 16.2 N”), 7,983 ft, at the north end of the lake, reporting since Oct 1, 2026. Data: CoCoRaHS (CC BY 3.0) · the full station record.
About this data
Each figure is the 24 hours ending at 7 AM on the date shown, so “Monday” means Sunday morning to Monday morning. In winter the same reading includes new snow, the water in it once melted, and the total depth on the ground, all measured by hand. A trace means precipitation fell but too little to measure (under 0.01 inch).
It is one observer, once a day. If a morning is missed, that day is left blank, never counted as zero, and every total says how many days it covers. A missed stretch can later arrive as one multi-day total. Running totals use the water year (October 1 to September 30), the calendar hydrologists use for snowpack and runoff. The gauge has only been reporting since September 16, 2026, so there is no long-term average to compare against yet.
Why not the marina weather station? Its automatic tipping-bucket gauge is good for “is it raining right now”, but those buckets under-read wind-driven rain and cannot measure snow. A manual 4-inch gauge is the reference instrument. The site checks for the new report every 15 minutes each morning until it arrives.
Getting up the hill
CDOT reports for the Durango to Bayfield route (US 160), plus full road closures anywhere in Southwest Colorado. CDOT does not cover CR 501. Statewide: dial 511 or see COtrip.
Status
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Road closures reported by CDOT (each opens the CDOT map)
Source: CDOT COtrip map · by phone: 511
Live road cameras: Durango access
The latest CDOT snapshots on the route in, refreshed while this page is open. Tap a camera for a larger view.
CR 501 — the last leg to the lake
CDOT doesn’t report CR 501 and there is no public camera on it — use the cameras below for the road in, and 511 for the rest.
511 CDOT road conditions and closures, by phone, any time.
US 160 at Bayfield — the CR 501 turnoff
US 550 and US 160 — Durango
US 160 — Wolf Creek Pass, if you come from the east
Cameras: CDOT / COtrip · images refresh every few minutes · a frozen frame usually means the camera, not the road. More COtrip cameras
Outages near the lake
Checking the LPEA outage feed…
About this data
We poll LPEA's public outage feed every 15 minutes and count outages within about 8 miles of the lake. An outage's location is a reporting rollup anchor, the point LPEA uses for the event, not every affected meter, and customer counts can lag or be estimated. More on power, providers, and backup at Utilities & services.
Live status
Vallecito is served by La Plata Electric Association. For the authoritative, real-time picture always check the LPEA map.
Important local contacts
Cell coverage is spotty up here — screenshot this. In any life-threatening emergency — fire, injury, water rescue — call 911 first.
Contacts provided for convenience and may change — verify with the agency. In any emergency, call 911 first. Sign up for emergency alerts: La Plata County LPC Alerts. Wildfire alerts: Watch Duty.
Fire stations around the lake For emergencies, always call 911
Reference / non-emergency. Upper Pine River FPD runs 8 stations; these three are nearest the lake and the CR 501 route. Several lake stations are non-staffed — don't call a station line in a fire, call 911.
| Station | Location | Phone | Staffing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Station 4 — North Vallecito | 80 W. Vallecito Creek, Bayfield | (970) 444-0030 | Staffed 24/7 |
| Station 2 — Vallecito Dam | 13100 CR 501, Bayfield | (970) 884-8882 | Non-staffed response location |
| Station 5 — Forest Lakes | 6891 CR 501, Bayfield | (970) 884-9707 | Staffed |
Where this data comes from
We pull from the same official feeds the agencies publish. Go straight to them anytime.