Blue Mesa Dam is a 390-foot-tall (120 m) zoned earthfill dam on the Gunnison River in Colorado. It creates Blue Mesa Reservoir, and is within Curecanti National Recreation Area just before the river enters the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. The dam is upstream of the Morrow Point Dam. Blue Mesa Dam and reservoir are part of the Bureau of Reclamation's Wayne N. Aspinall Unit of the Colorado River Storage Project, which retains the waters of the Colorado River and its tributaries for agricultural and municipal use in the American Southwest. Although the dam does produce hydroelectric power, its primary purpose is water storage. State Highway 92 passes over the top of the dam. Blue Mesa Dam houses two turbine generators and produces an average of 264,329,000 kilowatt-hours each year.
Blue Mesa Dam
Blue Mesa Dam
Very low water levels
Blue Mesa Reservoir
The Gunnison River is located in western Colorado, United States and is one of the largest tributaries of the Colorado River.
The Gunnison River in Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park
An aerial photograph of Gunnison River, November 2014
Black Canyon of the Gunnison, June 2016