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The Upper Colorado River is a unique and beautiful recreation area, known for its diverse water features, wildlife and cultural landscapes accessible along the Colorado River Headwaters Scenic Byway. Notable segments of the Upper Colorado River include Reeder Creek to Blue River, Gore Canyon, Pumphouse to State Bridge and State Bridge to Dotsero.

The most popular of these segments, from Pumphouse to State Bridge, offers camping facilities at both Pumphouse and Radium. The area combines placid boating waters through pastoral heritage ranchlands with more challenging Class II and III rapids in the intervening canyons. Extreme Class IV and V whitewater rafting and kayaking are available in Gore Canyon (not recommended without a commercial outfitter). The Pumphouse Recreation Site also offers the Gore Canyon Whitewater Park with large boulders placed on the bed of the river create waves and whitewater for kayakers, stand-up paddle boarders and other whitewater enthusiasts.

Photo by Bob Wick, BLM.

The Wild and Scenic Rivers Act provides three levels of river classification: wild, scenic, and recreational.

Wild rivers are free of dams, generally inaccessible except by trail, and represent vestiges of primitive America.

Scenic rivers are free of dams, with shorelines or watersheds that are still largely primitive and shorelines that are largely undeveloped, but accessible in places by roads.