Illinois River (Colorado)

Illinois River [1]
	Illinois River in April from SH 14 south of Walden
Physical characteristics
Main source	Never Summer Mountains
River mouth	Confluence with Michigan ; 8,022 ft (2,445 m); 40°45′08″N106°18′11″W / 40.75222°N 106.30306°W Coordinates: 40°45′08″N106°18′11″W / 40.75222°N 106.30306°W
Basin features
Progression	Michigan—North Platte—Platte—; Missouri—Mississippi

Last updated April 09, 2019

Illinois River is a tributary of the Michigan River, approximately 71 miles (114 km) long,^[2] in Jackson County in north central Colorado. It drains part of the North Park basin south of Walden.

The Michigan River is a tributary of the North Platte River, approximately 69 miles (111 km) long, in north central Colorado in the United States. It drains a rural part of the eastern side of North Park in eastern Jackson County. The river issues from Michigan Lakes, a chain of alpine lakes at 11,208 ft (3,416 m), along the continental divide in southeast Jackson County just east of Nokhu Crags. It descends north then west to flow past the south end of Cameron Pass, and descends from the pass along the route of State Highway 14, past Gould, then northwest through the ranch country of North Park, where it becomes a largely braided stream with a wide river bottom. It passes just east of Walden, and receives the Illinois River from the south just north of Walden. It joins the North Platte from the south approximately 5 miles (8 km) downstream to the north.

Jackson County is a county in the state of Colorado. As of the 2010 census, the population was 1,394, and it was the fourth least-densely populated in the state. The county seat and only municipality in the county is Walden.

Colorado is a state of the Western United States encompassing most of the southern Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains. It is the 8th most extensive and 21st most populous U.S. state. The estimated population of Colorado was 5,695,564 on July 1, 2018, an increase of 13.25% since the 2010 United States Census.

The Illinois River starts in the Never Summer Mountains near the continental divide, just south of Farview Mountain. It descends northward through a winding gorge, emerging into North Park at approximately 8,000 feet (2,400 m) above sea level. It flows northward through the valley as a winding stream, past Rand. It passes under State Highway 14 just southeast of Walden and joins the Michigan from the north just north of Walden. A portion of the valley of the river south of Walden is located within the Arapaho National Wildlife Refuge.

The Never Summer Mountains are a mountain range in the Rocky Mountains in north central Colorado in the United States consisting of seventeen named peaks. The range is located along the northwest border of Rocky Mountain National Park, forming the continental divide between the headwaters of the Colorado River in Rocky Mountain National Park to the local-east and the upper basin of the North Platte River to the local-west; the continental divide makes a loop in these mountains. The range is small and tall, covering only 25 sq mi (65 km²) with a north-south length of 10 mi (16 km) while rising to over 12,000 ft (3,700 m) at over ten distinct peaks. The range straddles the Jackson-Grand county line for most of its length, and stretches into Jackson and Larimer county at its northern end. A panoramic view of the range is available from sections of Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mountain National Park. One of the northernmost peaks, Nokhu Crags, is prominently visible from the west side of Cameron Pass.

A continental divide is a drainage divide on a continent such that the drainage basin on one side of the divide feeds into one ocean or sea, and the basin on the other side either feeds into a different ocean or sea, or else is endorheic, not connected to the open sea. Every continent on earth except Antarctica which has no free-flowing water has at least one continental drainage divide; islands, even small ones like Killiniq Island on the Labrador Sea in Canada, may also host part of a continental divide or have their own island-spanning divide.

Rand is an unincorporated community, with a U.S. Post Office, established in 1881 in Jackson County, Colorado. It is a ranching community at the southern end of North Park south of Walden consisting of several homes and businesses, a post office, and ranching facilities. Rand is near the junction of State Highway 125 and Jackson County Road 27 along Indian Creek, at an elevation of 8627 feet. The Rand post office has the ZIP code 80473. Some say the community was named after Charles Rand, a pioneer, while others believe it has the name of J. A. Rand, another pioneer. The post office in Rand was established in 1883.

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South Platte River principal tributary of the Platte River

The South Platte River is one of the two principal tributaries of the Platte River. Flowing through the U.S. states of Colorado and Nebraska, it is itself a major river of the American Midwest and the American Southwest/Mountain West. Its drainage basin includes much of the eastern flank of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado; much of the populated region known as the Colorado Front Range and Eastern Plains; and a portion of southeastern Wyoming in the vicinity of the city of Cheyenne. It joins the North Platte River in western Nebraska to form the Platte, which then flows across Nebraska to the Missouri. The river serves as the principal source of water for eastern Colorado. In its valley along the foothills in Colorado, it has permitted agriculture in an area of the Colorado Piedmont and Great Plains that is otherwise arid.

The Illinois River is a principal tributary of the Mississippi River, approximately 273 miles (439 km) long, in the U.S. state of Illinois. The river drains a large section of central Illinois, with a drainage basin of 28,756.6 square miles (74,479 km²). The drainage basin extends into Wisconsin, Indiana, and a very small area of southwestern Michigan. This river was important among Native Americans and early French traders as the principal water route connecting the Great Lakes with the Mississippi. The French colonial settlements along the rivers formed the heart of the area known as the Illinois Country. After the construction of the Illinois and Michigan Canal and the Hennepin Canal in the 19th century, the role of the river as link between Lake Michigan and the Mississippi was extended into the era of modern industrial shipping. It now forms the basis for the Illinois Waterway.

The Platte River is a major river in the state of Nebraska and is about 310 mi (500 km) long. Measured to its farthest source via its tributary the North Platte River, it flows for over 1,050 miles (1,690 km). The Platte River is a tributary of the Missouri River, which itself is a tributary of the Mississippi River which flows to the Gulf of Mexico. The Platte over most of its length is a muddy, broad, shallow, meandering stream with a swampy bottom and many islands—a braided stream. These characteristics made it too difficult for canoe travel, and it was never used as a major navigation route by European-American trappers or explorers.

The North Platte River is a major tributary of the Platte River and is approximately 716 miles (1,152 km) long, counting its many curves. In a straight line, it travels about 550 miles (890 km), along its course through the U.S. states of Colorado, Wyoming, and Nebraska.

The Blue River is a tributary of the Colorado River, approximately 65 miles (105 km) long, in the U.S. state of Colorado.

The Fraser River is a tributary of the Colorado River, approximately 32.5 miles (52.3 km) long, in north central Colorado in the United States. It drains large portion of the Middle Park basin in Grand County in the Rocky Mountains west of Boulder and southwest of Rocky Mountain National Park. It rises at the continental divide on the north side of Berthoud Pass in the Arapaho National Forest. It flows NNW past Winter Park, Fraser, and Tabernash, and joins the Colorado River from the south two miles west of Granby.

Cameron Pass is a 10,276 ft (3,132 m) elevation mountain pass in the Rocky Mountains in north central Colorado in the United States. The pass is a gap between the south end of the Medicine Bow Mountains and the north end of the Never Summer Mountains. It sits on the border between Jackson County and Larimer County, approximately 3 mi (5 km) north of the boundary of Rocky Mountain National Park. The pass provides the most convenient route between Fort Collins and Walden in North Park, using State Highway 14.

The Canadian River is a tributary of the North Platte River, approximately 55 miles (89 km) long, located in Jackson County in north central Colorado in the United States. It drains the eastern edge of the North Park basin along the western side of Medicine Bow Mountains.

North Park is a high, sparsely populated basin in the Rocky Mountains in north central Colorado in the United States. It encompasses a wide valley in Jackson County rimmed by mountain ranges at the headwaters of the North Platte River and several smaller tributaries, including the Michigan River, Illinois River, and Canadian River. The valley receives its name from being the northernmost of the three large mountain valleys in Colorado on the western side of the Front Range. The others are Middle Park and South Park respectively.

State Highway 125 (SH 125) is a state highway in the U.S. state of Colorado. The highway runs north–south through Jackson and Grand counties in north central Colorado. It furnishes the principal north–south link through North Park and a connection to Middle Park over Willow Creek Pass. It is two-lane along its entire route. SH 125's southern terminus is at U.S. Route 40 west of Granby, and the northern terminus is at Wyoming Highway 230 at the Wyoming border.

The Middle Fork South Platte River is a tributary of the South Platte River, approximately 50 miles (80 km) long, located in central Colorado in the United States. The river provides part of the drainage of South Park, the intermontane grassland basin located between the Front Range and the Mosquito Range in the Rocky Mountains southwest of Denver.

The South Fork South Platte River is a tributary of the South Platte River, approximately 45 miles (72 km) long, in central Colorado in the United States. It is located near the headwaters of the South Platte in Park County, Colorado and drains part of the intermontane grassland basin of South Park. It forms the South Platte by its confluence with the Middle Fork South Platte River in southern South Park.

The Santa Cruz River is a river in Southern Arizona and northern Sonora, Mexico. It is approximately 184 miles (296 km) long.

This article is about the prehistoric lake, For other geographic features with this name, see Chicago

The Ontonagon River is a river flowing to Lake Superior on the western Upper Peninsula of Michigan in the United States. The main stem of the river is 25 miles (40 km) long and is formed by a confluence of several longer branches, portions of which have been collectively designated as a National Wild and Scenic River. Several waterfalls occur on the river including Agate Falls and Bond Falls.

The Colorado River is a major river of the western United States and northwest Mexico in North America. Its headwaters are in the Rocky Mountains where La Poudre Pass Lake is its source. Located in north central Colorado it flows southwest through the Colorado Plateau country of western Colorado, southeastern Utah and northwestern Arizona where it flows through the Grand Canyon. It turns south near Las Vegas, Nevada, forming the Arizona–Nevada border in Lake Mead and the Arizona–California border a few miles below Davis Dam between Laughlin, Nevada and Needles, California California before entering Mexico in the Colorado Desert. Most of its waters are diverted into the Imperial Valley of Southern California. In Mexico its course forms the boundary between Sonora and Baja California before entering the Gulf of California. This article describes most of the major features along the river.

Lake Kankakee formed 14,000 years before present (YBP) in the valley of the Kankakee River. It developed from the outwash of the Michigan Lobe, Saginaw Lobe, and the Huron-Erie Lobe of the Wisconsin glaciation. These three ice sheets formed a basin across Northwestern Indiana. It was a time when the glaciers were receding, but had stopped for a thousand years in these locations. The lake drained about 13,000 YBP, until reaching the level of the Momence Ledge. The outcropping of limestone created an artificial base level, holding water throughout the upper basin, creating the Grand Kankakee Marsh.

The Laurel Fork is a 15.7-mile-long (25.3 km) stream in Virginia and West Virginia, United States. The stream flows north from Highland County, Virginia, where its source and the majority of its length is located, to its mouth in Pendleton County, West Virginia. Laurel Fork is a tributary to the North Fork South Branch Potomac River, making it a part of the Potomac River watershed. The area surrounding Laurel Fork is home to several plant and animal species found nowhere else in Virginia, and is a prime example of a northern boreal forest in the state.

State Route 30 is an east-west state highway in the central and eastern portions of the U.S. state of Tennessee. It runs generally west to east, connecting McMinnville in Warren County with Parksville along the Ocoee River in Polk County. It crosses several major geographic features in Tennessee, including the Cumberland Plateau, the Sequatchie Valley, the Tennessee River, and parts of the Cherokee National Forest.

References

↑ "Illinois River". Geographic Names Information System . United States Geological Survey . Retrieved 2011-01-31.
↑ U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data. The National Map Archived 2012-04-05 at WebCite , accessed March 21, 2011

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[gnis-1] "Illinois River". Geographic Names Information System . United States Geological Survey . Retrieved 2011-01-31.

[NHD-2] U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data. The National Map Archived 2012-04-05 at WebCite , accessed March 21, 2011

Illinois River (Colorado)

See also

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References