A shared place
Respect Vallecito
One of the last, best mountain-lake valleys in Colorado — here's how we all keep it that way. We live here, and we're glad you're here.
What you're standing in
A pretty extraordinary corner of Colorado
Before the “how,” the “why.” A few things about this valley that are worth knowing — and worth protecting. Around 400–500 of us live here year-round (about 2,000 in summer), surrounded by more than 2.5 million acres of public land. (Visit Durango)
⛰️ Colorado's largest Wilderness is the backyard
The Weminuche wraps the valley: 499,771 acres — the Forest Service calls it “three-quarters the size of Rhode Island” — with 50 miles of the Continental Divide and three 14ers (Eolus, Sunlight, Windom). Its snowmelt feeds both the Rio Grande and the San Juan.
🥾 Two great gateways start right here
From the lake, the Vallecito Creek Trail (#529) climbs roughly 18 miles to the Divide, and the Pine River Trail (#523) reaches what the Forest Service calls “some of the finest fly-fishing anywhere.”
💧 The water carries an 1868 priority date
This reservoir honors some of the oldest water rights in the basin. The Southern Ute Indian Tribe owns a one-sixth interest in Vallecito Reservoir, confirmed in a 1988 federal settlement. The wilderness above it is named for the Weminuche band of the Ute people, whose homeland this is; “Vallecito” is Spanish for “little valley.”
🏗️ A New Deal lake
The Bureau of Reclamation built Vallecito Dam between 1938 and 1941. WPA workers and CCC enrollees cleared some five million board feet of timber from the valley floor before the water rose — ranchers, farmers, and Utes had pushed for it together.
🐏 The bighorns above the creek are originals
The sheep on the slopes above Vallecito Creek are a native, genetically distinct herd that never died out — among only a few hundred animals across three herds in these mountains. Worth a long look through binoculars, and a wide berth.
🐾 The cats came back
218 Canada lynx were released into the San Juans between 1999 and 2007 — Colorado's most successful carnivore reintroduction. Moose, reintroduced from 1991, now wander the high drainages too.
🦅 Osprey overhead, eagles on the shore
The Colorado Birding Trail calls osprey “plentiful” here; bald eagles cruise the shoreline, and loons and goldeneye pass through on migration. Bring the binoculars.
🎣 A record-setting fishery
Vallecito has produced a state-record northern pike, gives up trophy pike regularly, and grows brown trout to 30 inches. A genuinely special place to fish — let's keep it that way.