Shore Leave
by Jon Burch Photography
Title
Shore Leave
Artist
Jon Burch Photography
Medium
Photograph - Digital Capture
Description
A view along the waters edge toward the Inlet Bay entrance over a very full Horsetooth Resevoir in northern Colorado near Ft. Collins.
Spring rains and snow melt have filled Horsetooth Reservoir west of Ft. Collins Colorado to the brim.
Horsetooth Reservoir is a large lake in southern Larimer County, Colorado just west of the city of Fort Collins. It sits in the foothills above the town on the western side of the Dakota Hogback, which contains the water along its eastern side. The reservoir runs north-south for approximately 6.5 miles, and is approximately one-half mile wide.
Constructed in 1949 by the Bureau of Reclamation as part of its federal Colorado-Big Thompson Project, water distribution is currently managed by the Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District and Bureau of Reclamation. Horsetooth and Carter Lake serve as the two principal containers for water diverted eastward under the continental divide via the Colorado-Big Thompson.
Horsetooth reservoir is a supplementary source of municipal water for Fort Collins and other communities in the region, as well as for irrigation in the South Platte River valley. The reservoir takes its name from Horsetooth Mountain, a summit in the foothills west of the southern end of the reservoir.
The construction of the reservoir inundated the community of Stout. Prior to construction, the majority of the town moved to a location that today surrounds Horsetooth's South Bay, but a few building foundations, including that of the old school house, are now under water
Horsetooth Reservoir was created by the construction of four separate large earthen dams, all completed in 1949 and all modernized with a seismic retrofit in 2000-2004.
Image copyright 2015 Jon Burch Photography
Uploaded
June 18th, 2015
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