Pulled automatically from public agencies — USGS, the National Weather Service, USBR/USACE, NIFC, and CDOT (plus the lake weather station when it's live) — and refreshed every 15 minutes. How we verify →
📌 Checking before every drive up? Add this page to your home screen (your browser's Share → Add to Home Screen, or Install) — it opens like an app, straight to live conditions.
Current temperature and today's high, low, and 5-day forecast for the lake. Source: —.
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.
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Why this can differ from your phone: we blend several forecast models (NWS, GFS, ECMWF, ICON) and correct to the lakeside station and the valley's microclimate. Full forecast →
Sunrise, sunset, the moon, dark-sky stargazing, and tomorrow's first bite window — plus a look at the next few days — figured on your device from sun and moon math for the lake. No live data.
Reading tonight's sky…
The fire-restriction stage and the NWS alerts below come from the same feed as the dashboard tile, so they always match.
📘 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.
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.
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 |
Incident count and nearest fire within 50 miles of the lake, from the NIFC WFIGS feed. Our full fire map, perimeters, and incident detail: Wildfire watch →. For official write-ups see InciWeb; for real-time alerts, Watch Duty.
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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).
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 — an intermittent but recurring summer hazard here.
Sources: PurpleAir community sensor · EPA correction applied (when a nearby sensor is live); AirNow (EPA) regulatory monitor, nearest reporting area · Fire & Smoke Map →
📍 Trust your eyes and nose alongside the number — smoke at the lake can differ from the reading.
We show two readings. When a nearby community sensor is live, that's the headline: a low-cost PurpleAir sensor much closer to the lake and only minutes old, run through EPA's correction formula (the same one behind the AirNow Fire & Smoke Map) so it reads on the standard AQI scale. Below it we keep the regulatory monitor: the nearest EPA AirNow station is on the Southern Ute Indian Reservation, ~30 mi west-southwest and a few thousand feet lower, and updates about hourly — regulatory-grade, but far away.
When the two disagree by a lot, it usually means smoke is on the move — pooling in the valley while the distant monitor reads clear, or the reverse. Trust your nose alongside the numbers, the same way the roads tile is honest that CDOT doesn't cover CR 501. If no community sensor is reporting, the tile shows the AirNow monitor alone.
Health baseline from EPA AirNow / CDPHE guidance.
Sources: AirNow (EPA) AQI & smoke guidance; CDPHE wildfire-smoke health advice. See how we verify.
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, so it falls through late summer — see streamflow.
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.
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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 →
Low water pulls ramps and changes where fish hold; high water after a big snow year can cover the swim beach at the north end. The marina (970) 884-7000 has the day-to-day read.
Ramp season May 1–Nov 1. Trailered/motorized boats need an ANS inspection + stamp; SUP/kayak are exempt. The live lake level is shown here — very low water can affect the ramp. For real-time ramp status call the marina, (970) 884-7000 (no published launch-level cutoff — the marina has the day-to-day read). Full guide: launching your boat.
Water flowing into the lake from the two feeder creeks, and the release flowing out of the dam — all in cubic feet per second (cfs). Inflow is USGS instantaneous values; outflow is the daily dam release (USACE/USBR).
Outflow is the irrigation release to the Pine River valley — the Pine River Project serves about 69,000 acres downstream (including Southern Ute lands). It's why the lake level falls through late summer.
CDOT/COtrip alerts on the Durango access route (US-160) and CR 501. Statewide info: dial 511 or see COtrip.
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CR 501 climbs and can ice over before US-160 does. In storms, carry chains or run good snow tires — and check before an early-morning fishing run.
The latest CDOT snapshots on the route in, refreshed automatically while this page is open. Tap a camera for a larger view. There's no camera on CR 501 itself, so for that final climb, dial 511.
Cameras: CDOT / COtrip · images refresh every few minutes · a frozen frame usually means the camera, not the road. CDOT doesn't cover CR 501 itself. More COtrip cameras →
Checking the LPEA outage feed…
We poll LPEA's public outage feed every 15 minutes and count outages within about 8 miles of the lake. Vallecito is served by La Plata Electric Association.
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. For the authoritative, real-time picture always check the LPEA map. More on power, providers, and backup at Utilities & services.
We pull from the same official feeds the agencies publish. Go straight to them anytime.