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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This blends several models and corrects them against the station on the lake itself — full forecast and how it works →
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.
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.
Where the two readings come from, the smoke-forecast maps, and what to do on a smoke day: smoke & air quality →
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 day-use areas where people swim at the north end. The marina (970) 884-7000 has the day-to-day read.
Ramp season May 1–Nov 1; for today's actual ramp status call the marina, (970) 884-7000. Paperwork, inspection and the full walkthrough: 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 covers about 69,000 acres of project lands downstream (including Southern Ute lands), of which roughly 54,000 are irrigated in a typical year. 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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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.
US 160 · Bayfield (CR 501 turnoff) — west US 160 · Bayfield (CR 501 turnoff) — east US 160 · east of Bayfield — west US 160 · Wolf Creek Pass — east US 550 · Durango (US 160 junction) — south US 550 · south of Durango — north US 550 · Purgatory — south US 550 · Purgatory — north 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.
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 |
We pull from the same official feeds the agencies publish. Go straight to them anytime.