The Platte Canyon is a deep, narrow, scenic gorge on the South Platte River

South Platte River

The South Platte River is one of the two principal tributaries of the Platte River and itself a major river of the American Midwest and the American Southwest/Mountain West, located in the U.S. states of Colorado and Nebraska...

 in the Rocky Mountains

Rocky Mountains

The Rocky Mountains are a major mountain range in western North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch more than from the northernmost part of British Columbia, in western Canada, to New Mexico, in the southwestern United States...

 of Colorado

Colorado

Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...

. The canyon is southwest of Denver

Denver, Colorado

The City and County of Denver is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Denver is a consolidated city-county, located in the South Platte River Valley on the western edge of the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains...

 on the border between Jefferson

Jefferson County, Colorado

Jefferson County , whose slogan is the "Gateway to the Rocky Mountains", is the fourth most populous of the 64 counties of the State of Colorado of the United States. Located along the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains, Jefferson County is adjacent to the west side of the state capital, Denver....

 and Douglas

Douglas County, Colorado

Douglas County is the eighth most populous of the 64 counties of the state of Colorado, in the United States. The county is located midway between Colorado's two largest cities: Denver and Colorado Springs...

 counties. The canyon is at the entrance to the mountains, where the South Platte emerges through the Rampart Range

Rampart Range

The Rampart Range is a mountain range located in Douglas, El Paso, and Teller counties, Colorado, USA. It is part of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains. The range is almost entirely public land within the Pike National Forest....

 through the hogback

Hogback (geology)

A hogback is a homoclinal ridge, formed from a monocline, composed of steeply tilted strata of rock protruding from the surrounding area. The name comes from the ridge resembling the high, knobby spine between the shoulders of a hog. In most cases, the two strata that compose a hogback are...

s onto Eastern Plains

Colorado Eastern Plains

The Eastern Plains of Colorado refers to a region of the U.S. state of Colorado east of the Rocky Mountains and east of the population centers of the Front Range.-Geography:...

. The lower narrow section is sometimes called Waterton Canyon.

Geography

The term Platte Canyon is used varyingly to apply to the entire section of the South Platte and the North Fork South Platte in the mountains between South Park

South Park (Colorado basin)

South Park is a high intermontane grassland basin, approximately 10,000 ft in elevation, in the Rocky Mountains of central Colorado. It encompasses approximately 1,000 square miles around the headwaters of the South Platte River in Park County approximately 60 mi southwest of Denver...

 and the eastern plains. It also is often applied to the communities along the North Fork near Bailey

Bailey, Colorado

Bailey is an unincorporated town and U.S. Post Office in northeastern Park County, Colorado, United States.The ZIP Code of the Bailey Post Office is 80421. Bailey is in the Mountain Time Zone. The community is located along U.S...

. The narrowest part of the canyon is a remote and roadless gorge (Waterton Canyon) approximately 8 miles (13 km) long, at its lower extremity between the hamlet of South Platte and Kassler, where it emerges from the mountains. In this section, the canyon has walls that rise approximately 1000 ft (300 m) from the river bed. The river drops from an elevation of approximately 6100 ft at South Platte at the head of the gorge to approximately 5500 ft at the canyon mouth. In this area is a diversion dam

Diversion dam

A diversion dam is the term for a dam that diverts all or a portion of the flow of a river from its natural course. Diversion dams do not generally impound water in a reservoir...

 that backs up water in the South Platte River, allowing some of it to be sent down the High Line Canal

High Line Canal

The High Line Canal is a man-made waterway, used for irrigation and recreation, that serves the Denver-Aurora Metropolitan Area. The High Line Canal begins at a diversion dam on the South Platte River, some above the mouth of Waterton Canyon...

.

Railroad

In the middle and late 1870s, the Denver, South Park and Pacific Railroad

Denver, South Park and Pacific Railroad

The Denver, South Park, and Pacific Railroad was a historic narrow gauge railway that operated in Colorado in the western United States in the late 19th century. The railroad opened up the first rail routes to a large section of the central Colorado mining district in the decades of the mineral boom...

 constructed the first railroad through the canyon and through the valley of the North Fork to South Park

South Park (Colorado basin)

South Park is a high intermontane grassland basin, approximately 10,000 ft in elevation, in the Rocky Mountains of central Colorado. It encompasses approximately 1,000 square miles around the headwaters of the South Platte River in Park County approximately 60 mi southwest of Denver...

 and eventually to Leadville

Leadville, Colorado

Leadville is a Statutory City that is the county seat of, and the only municipality in, Lake County, Colorado, United States. Situated at an elevation of , Leadville is the highest incorporated city and the second highest incorporated municipality in the United States...

 and Gunnison

Gunnison, Colorado

The historic City of Gunnison, a Home Rule Municipality, is the county seat and the most populous city of Gunnison County, Colorado, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 5,854. It was named in honor of John W...

. The line was initially a narrow gauge, and was later acquired by the Colorado and Southern Railway

Colorado and Southern Railway

The Colorado and Southern Railway was a railroad company in the western United States that operated independently from 1898 to 1908, then as part of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad until it was absorbed into the Burlington Northern Railroad in 1981.The railway began as the...

 and converted to standard gauge. Service on the line was terminated in 1937.

Potential dam

In the late 1920s, the Denver Board of Water Commissioners proposed building a dam to inundate the canyon, but the request was turned down by the Public Utilities Commission. A 1.7 miles section of Waterton Canyon was inundated by the Strontia Springs Reservoir, completed in 1983 as part of the Foothills Project for water diversion.

External links

• Topographic map from USGS via Microsoft Research Maps