Stories & history
The long version
Five pieces of Vallecito worth more than a paragraph — the water, a flood, a fire, a mountain road, and the pictures.
Five pieces of Vallecito worth more than a paragraph — the water, a flood, a fire, a mountain road, and the pictures.
Most of this site answers a question you have today. These five answer the ones you didn't know to ask — the record behind the lake you're looking at.
The record
Every rise and fall since 1941, charted — the year the lake nearly filled, the year it nearly emptied, and why “full” now tops out at 96 percent.
Read the record →October 2025
The week the creeks came up: the hours as they happened, what was lost, the eleven rescues, and the neighbors still rebuilding.
Read the story →June 2002
Seventy-three thousand acres, forty-six homes, and the summer that changed how this valley thinks about fire — plus the Alan Wyatt memorial.
Read the story →The road up
The forest road above the east shore: what it takes to drive it, the ATV routes off it, and the ghost town that isn't in this county.
Take the road →The gold camp
The Cave Basin camp that never paid: a 1913 strike on the Dowell property, a promoter still selling it the year it emptied, a lifetime of gold that would fit in a coffee can — and the mineral it gave the world instead.
Walk to the meadow →Ute history
A creek above the lake and a bridge on the Animas carry his name. The documented Southern Ute record — an adobe house, a horseman at the 1902 fair — kept honestly apart from the settler gold legend.
Read the record →Pictures
The lake, the dam, the aspens and the archives — freely licensed photographs of Vallecito, credited and dated.
See the photos →Also worth your time: the Tour of Carvings, the trail guide, and Respect Vallecito — the case for treating this place well.