Skip to content
Adventure Storytelling Media

← All territories

Clear Creek Reservoir at low water, the remaining pool ringed by a wide band of pale exposed bed

Field NotesAdventure Storytelling Media

Drawn down on purpose

A reservoir near its lowest, for a reason that isn't the one you'd guess.

Chaffee County, Colorado · 2026.08.08

Amazing Aerial AgencyAerial work licensed through Amazing Aerial Agency
  • colorado
  • drone
  • reservoir
The drawn-down basin of Clear Creek Reservoir seen down-valley, channels crossing the flats with mountains behind
Licensed through Amazing Aerial Agency
Braided channels cut into pale sediment on the exposed floor of the reservoir, seen from directly above
Licensed through Amazing Aerial Agency

Clear Creek Reservoir sits in Chaffee County, on the creek it’s named for, a few miles above where that water reaches the Arkansas. Pueblo Water owns the reservoir and the dam; Colorado Parks and Wildlife runs the recreation on a lease.

It is low here because someone decided it should be. Pueblo Water is working on the dam, and CPW took the opportunity to extend the boat ramp so it still reaches water in a dry year. The campground closed in April 2026 and the ramp is expected back for the full 2027 season. A thin snowpack in the upper Arkansas didn’t empty this reservoir — it’s the reason the work happened in 2026 instead of waiting.

The drawdown is what makes it worth flying. Pulled back this far, the old bed returns as a braid of channels running through pale sediment, and what’s left of the water sits in the deepest ground.

Green shallows and a sediment delta at the head of Clear Creek Reservoir, ridgelines rising on both sides
Licensed through Amazing Aerial Agency