Ch03 — Hydrology & Springs

Water defines Emery County more than any other single force. It carved the canyons, built the soils, drew the settlers, and still dictates where people can live. Every community in the county owes its existence to a creek, a spring, or a canal — and every conflict in its history circles back, sooner or later, to the question of who controls the water. This chapter traces the county’s complete water story: from snowmelt on the Wasatch Plateau to salt-laden return flows entering the Green River, and from the first hand-dug ditches of the 1870s to the satellite-monitored reservoirs of today.

3.1 Regional Drainage & River Basins

Emery County lies entirely within the Colorado River basin, with two principal drainage systems dividing its 4,462 square miles. The San Rafael River system dominates the western two-thirds of the county, while the Green River forms the eastern boundary and serves as the ultimate collecting channel for nearly all water that falls on Emery County soil.

The San Rafael River forms from three principal tributaries that originate high on the Wasatch Plateau: Huntington Creek, Cottonwood Creek, and Ferron Creek. These streams descend through steep mountain canyons, fan out across Castle Valley — the agricultural heartland of the county — and then converge to form the San Rafael River. From there, the San Rafael cuts eastward through the San Rafael Swell in a series of spectacular canyons before joining the Green River approximately ten miles downstream (south) of the town of Green River.

The Green River itself enters Emery County from the north, carving Desolation and Gray Canyons — two of the most remote river corridors in the lower forty-eight states — before passing through the town of Green River and exiting to the south. At the USGS monitoring station near Green River (USGS 09315000), mean annual discharge averages approximately 6,100 cubic feet per second (cfs) based on post-regulation records (Flaming Gorge Dam, completed 1962, significantly altered the natural flow regime), though this figure masks enormous seasonal variation from spring floods to late-summer lows.

Muddy Creek and its principal tributary, Quitchupah Creek, drain the southwestern portion of the county. These streams flow through a landscape of exposed Mancos Shale badlands, picking up dissolved salts that make their water among the most mineralized in the region. Muddy Creek eventually reaches the Fremont River and thence the Colorado, but its headwaters and much of its course lie within Emery County.

3.2 Surface-Water Hydrography & Seasonal Flow Regimes

The rivers and creeks of Emery County follow a snowmelt-dominant flow regime. Peak discharge occurs in May and June as the Wasatch Plateau snowpack melts, sending a pulse of cold, relatively clean water down the mountain canyons. By late July, flows diminish sharply. Late summer and fall bring the lowest natural streamflows of the year, though sporadic thunderstorms during the July–September monsoon season can trigger flash floods that temporarily spike discharge in otherwise dry channels.

This seasonal pattern has profound consequences for water management. From roughly April through November, major irrigation diversions on Huntington, Cottonwood, and Ferron Creeks capture nearly all available flow. Downstream of the diversion points, the creeks run on irrigation return flow rather than natural streamflow — a distinction that matters enormously for water quality, as Section 3.6 explains.

A 1977–78 USGS reconnaissance of the San Rafael basin visited 116 sites and found 19 of them completely dry, underscoring the intermittent nature of many tributaries (USGS, 1978). The San Rafael River at its mouth (USGS 09328910) can fluctuate from a few cfs in late summer to several thousand cfs during snowmelt runoff — a ratio that makes the river simultaneously a lifeline and a hazard.

3.3 Groundwater Provinces & Principal Aquifers

Beneath the surface, Emery County sits atop the Colorado Plateau aquifer system — a thick sequence of flat-lying Mesozoic and Paleozoic sedimentary rocks that stores and transmits groundwater through a complex network of fractures, joints, and bedding planes. Unlike many aquifer systems in the western United States, primary porosity in these rocks has been largely eliminated by compaction and cementation. Instead, secondary porosity — the network of cracks and discontinuities created by tectonic stresses and weathering — provides the principal pathways for groundwater movement (Utah Geological Survey).

The aquifers are frequently interbedded with impermeable shale and siltstone layers, creating confined or semi-confined conditions. This layered architecture means that a well drilled in one location might tap abundant water at a particular depth while a well a few hundred yards away might encounter dry rock. Most areas in the county are underlain by aquifers capable of supplying water sufficient for domestic and agricultural use, but yields vary enormously.

Groundwater quality in Emery County mirrors the geologic diversity of the subsurface. In shallow alluvial aquifers near Green River, dissolved solids concentrations measured during a 2004–05 USGS study ranged from 687 to 55,900 milligrams per liter (mg/L) — a variation driven largely by proximity to the Mancos Shale, which releases selenium, sulfate, and other dissolved constituents as it weathers (USGS SIR 2006/5186). Deeper bedrock aquifers in the Navajo Sandstone and other Mesozoic formations generally produce cleaner water, though access depends on depth and local geologic structure.

3.4 Springs Inventory & Classification

Springs have been essential to life in Emery County since long before human settlement. They determined where wildlife congregated, where prehistoric peoples camped, and where the first ranchers and farmers established homesteads. Today they remain critical water sources for livestock, wildlife, and in some cases municipal supply.

The Utah Geological Survey conducts field inventories of springs, seeps, and related aquatic features on public lands, primarily for water rights quantification and resource assessment. The National Hydrography Dataset (NHD), maintained by the USGS and accessible through the Utah Geographic Information Database (SGID), provides spatial data on springs and seeps across the state, though coverage in remote areas of the San Rafael Swell and the Book Cliffs remains incomplete.

Springs in Emery County can be broadly classified by their geologic setting. Contact springs emerge where groundwater flowing through permeable sandstone formations — the Navajo, Entrada, or Wingate — encounters an impermeable layer and is forced to the surface. Fracture springs discharge along fault lines or joints in otherwise impermeable rock. Alluvial springs rise where stream-deposited gravels intersect the water table. Each type has different flow characteristics: contact springs tend to be the most reliable, while fracture springs may respond more quickly to seasonal recharge.

[needs additional sources] A comprehensive springs inventory specific to Emery County — with individual spring names, locations, flow rates, and classifications — has not been located in published literature. The UGS Groundwater Monitoring Portal (gwportal.geology.utah.gov) contains well and spring records that could support a more detailed catalog, and field verification would significantly strengthen this section.

3.5 Seepage Zones, Hanging Gardens & Microhabitats

Among the most remarkable hydrologic features in Emery County are the desert hanging gardens — lush pockets of ferns, mosses, columbines, and monkey flowers that cling to canyon walls in the San Rafael Swell and adjacent canyons. These microhabitats form where groundwater seeping through porous sandstone reaches a contact with an underlying impermeable layer and is forced horizontally to the cliff face, emerging as a curtain of seeps and drips.

Hanging gardens are disproportionately important to biodiversity. In a landscape where annual precipitation may be less than eight inches, these perennial water sources support plant and animal communities found nowhere else in the surrounding desert. Endemic species — plants, invertebrates, and amphibians adapted specifically to these moist, sheltered environments — depend on the persistence of groundwater discharge that may take decades or centuries to move from recharge zone to seep face.

The ecological fragility of hanging gardens makes them sensitive indicators of changes in groundwater recharge. If climate shifts or upstream development reduces the volume of water entering the sandstone aquifer, hanging gardens may dry and their endemic communities may disappear — with no possibility of recolonization from nearby habitats that do not exist in the arid surroundings.

[needs additional sources] Specific hanging garden locations within Emery County and the San Rafael Swell deserve field documentation and mapping. BLM management plans for the San Rafael Swell Recreation Area may contain additional site-specific information.

3.6 Water Chemistry & Quality Indicators

Water quality in Emery County tells a story of geologic inheritance. Upstream of the major irrigation diversions, water in Huntington, Cottonwood, and Ferron Creeks is excellent — dissolved solids concentrations typically fall below 500 mg/L, well within drinking water standards. These creeks originate in Wasatch Plateau limestones and sandstones that contribute relatively few dissolved minerals.

The transformation downstream is dramatic. As the San Rafael River and its tributaries flow eastward across the Castle Valley and into the lowlands, they cross extensive exposures of Mancos Shale — a Cretaceous marine mudstone notorious for its high content of sulfate, selenium, and other soluble salts. Natural weathering of the Mancos Shale elevates dissolved solids above 2,000 mg/L in the San Rafael River during all but the highest snowmelt flows. Irrigation compounds the problem: canal seepage dissolves additional Mancos Shale minerals, and return flows concentrate salts through evapotranspiration.

The numbers are striking. A 2004–05 USGS study (SIR 2006/5186) found that irrigation water diverted from the creeks averaged 357 mg/L dissolved solids. By the time that water returned to the Green River as seepage and drain flow, the mean concentration had risen to 4,170 mg/L — an 11.7-fold increase. Strontium exceeded 1,500 micrograms per liter at seven sites in the San Rafael basin. Annual salt loading to the Green River from agricultural areas near the town of Green River alone was estimated at approximately 15,700 tons per year.

Canal seepage losses quantified in the same study illustrate the scale of water movement through the shallow subsurface: the Thayn Canal lost an estimated 1,550 acre-feet, the East Side Canal 1,460 acre-feet, and the Green River Canal 4,710 acre-feet during the May–October irrigation season. These losses are not simply wasted water — they recharge shallow aquifers and sustain return flows — but they mobilize salts from the Mancos Shale that ultimately degrade downstream water quality in the Green River and the Colorado River system.

3.7 Flood History & Paleoflood Evidence

Flash floods are among the most dangerous natural hazards in Emery County. The combination of impermeable Mancos Shale badlands, narrow sandstone slot canyons in the San Rafael Swell, and intense convective thunderstorms during the July–September monsoon season creates conditions for rapid, violent flooding with little warning.

Statewide, August is the most active flood month in Utah, accounting for 465 recorded flood events — roughly 35 percent of all flood records in the state. Emery County’s share of these events is concentrated in the slot canyons of the San Rafael Swell — Little Wild Horse Canyon, Crack Canyon, Bell Canyon, and others — where recreational hikers are particularly vulnerable to sudden water rises in confined passages.

The danger is not abstract. In August 2021, a man was killed in Emery County when a wall of water and debris roared down Bear Canyon near the Gentry Mountain coal mine, catching three mine vehicles in its path. Such events are reminders that flash flood risk extends beyond recreational canyons to work sites, roads, and rural communities throughout the county’s lower elevations.

Longer-term flood records and paleoflood evidence — physical traces of ancient floods preserved in canyon sediments — could extend the known flood history well beyond the instrumental record, but published paleoflood studies specific to the San Rafael River basin have not been located. This represents a significant research gap, particularly for flood-risk assessment in recreational areas and along transportation corridors.

3.8 Dams, Diversions & Irrigation Canals

The built water infrastructure of Emery County represents more than a century of effort to capture, store, and distribute the snowmelt that arrives in a few intense weeks each spring and must sustain farms, towns, and industries through the remaining ten months.

The centerpiece of this infrastructure is the Emery County Project, a Bureau of Reclamation initiative whose construction commenced on June 20, 1963, and was substantially completed by 1966. The project’s keystone structure is Joes Valley Dam and Reservoir, an earthfill dam on Seely Creek containing 1,290,000 cubic yards of material. The dam rises 187 feet above the streambed with a crest length of 750 feet, impounding a reservoir with a capacity of 62,460 acre-feet and a surface area of 1,170 acres. Joes Valley Reservoir is the single largest storage facility in the San Rafael basin and the primary source of supplemental irrigation water for Castle Valley farms.

The project also includes Swasey Diversion Dam, a concrete ogee weir located ten miles downstream from Joes Valley Dam on Cottonwood Creek. This structure, eleven feet high with a 75-foot crest, can divert up to 165 cfs into the Cottonwood Creek–Huntington Canal — a 16.7-mile-long conveyance that connects the Cottonwood Creek drainage to the Huntington Creek system, effectively transferring water between basins to serve farms that would otherwise lack sufficient supply.

Other significant storage facilities include Huntington North Reservoir (5,420 acre-feet capacity, 242 acres surface area) and Millsite Reservoir, both monitored by the Emery Water Conservancy District (EWCD). In total, eight major reservoirs in the San Rafael basin held a combined capacity of approximately 115,000 acre-feet as of the late 1970s (USGS, 1978).

The system delivers roughly 28,100 acre-feet annually for irrigation of 18,755 acres, plus an additional 6,000 acre-feet for municipal and industrial use. The total irrigable area as defined by the Bureau of Reclamation in 1981 was 16,170 acres of active farmland plus 2,605 acres classified as “not for service.” Operations for the Emery County Project were transferred from the Bureau of Reclamation to the Emery Water Conservancy District on January 1, 1970, and EWCD has managed the system ever since.

3.9 Water Rights & Legal Framework

Water rights in Emery County follow Utah’s doctrine of prior appropriation — first in time, first in right — and the history of water development mirrors the county’s settlement chronology.

The earliest irrigation infrastructure dates to 1876, when settlers dug small ditches to divert water from Huntington Creek onto roughly 320 acres of land. By 1878, more substantial canals were under construction on both Cottonwood and Huntington Creeks as additional families arrived. Among the first were the Avery Ditch on Huntington Creek, the North Ditch on the left bank of Huntington Creek, the Clipper Canal on Cottonwood Creek above Orangeville, and the Molen and Peterson ditches on Ferron Creek (Geary). These hand-dug channels were crude by modern standards — unlined, undersized, and vulnerable to washouts — but they transformed sagebrush flats into farmland and made permanent settlement viable.

By approximately 1900, all dependable natural flows of Huntington and Cottonwood Creeks had been fully appropriated. Latecomers found no water left to claim during the critical irrigation months, which spurred decades of agitation for supplemental storage. In 1941, the Bureau of Reclamation endorsed the construction of a major reservoir at Joes Valley, with initial construction using Works Progress Administration (WPA) and Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) labor. Local water users contributed roughly fifty percent of the costs — a significant investment for a rural agricultural community (Simonds).

Today, water rights in the San Rafael drainage fall under Utah Division of Water Rights Area 93. The San Rafael drainage remains one of the more complex water rights areas in the state, with overlapping surface and groundwater claims, return-flow dependencies, and ongoing adjudication proceedings.

[needs additional sources] Specific appropriation dates, quantities, and the current status of water rights adjudication in Area 93 would strengthen this section considerably. The Utah Division of Water Rights online database and the Emery Water Conservancy District likely hold the most detailed records.

3.10 Groundwater–Surface Water Interaction & Riparian Health

In Emery County, the boundary between groundwater and surface water is not a clean line. Groundwater discharges into streams through springs and diffuse seepage, sustaining baseflow during the dry months when snowmelt has long since passed. Conversely, streams recharge shallow aquifers where they flow across permeable alluvium. This interchange is fundamental to the health of riparian corridors along Huntington, Cottonwood, and Ferron Creeks — the ribbons of cottonwood, willow, and box elder that trace green lines across an otherwise brown landscape.

Irrigation has profoundly altered this natural exchange. During the irrigation season (April–November), diversions remove most natural surface flow from the creeks. The water that returns downstream is largely canal seepage and field drainage, carrying dissolved salts, nutrients, and warmer temperatures than the native snowmelt it replaces. Riparian vegetation has adapted to this artificial regime — in some reaches, the cottonwood galleries owe their survival to irrigation return flows rather than natural streamflow.

The Green River corridor within Emery County supports a different scale of interaction. The Green is large enough to maintain perennial flow regardless of local diversions, and its riparian zone provides critical habitat for native fish species of conservation concern, including the Colorado pikeminnow (Ptychocheilus lucius) and the razorback sucker (Xyrauchen texanus) — both listed under the Endangered Species Act. The quality of tributary inflows from Emery County, particularly their salt and selenium content, directly affects habitat conditions for these species.

[needs additional sources] Riparian health assessments specific to Emery County creeks and the Green River corridor would provide valuable baseline data. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Upper Colorado River Endangered Fish Recovery Program may hold relevant monitoring data.

3.11 Climate Variability & Drought Impacts

More than 95 percent of Utah’s water supply begins as snow, and Emery County is no exception. The Wasatch Plateau snowpack — accumulating from October through April at elevations above 9,000 feet — is the county’s primary water bank. When the snowpack is deep and melts gradually, reservoirs fill, creeks run strong through the irrigation season, and groundwater recharge proceeds. When the snowpack is thin or melts too early, everything downstream suffers.

Drought is not a new phenomenon in the region, but its frequency and severity have increased in the twenty-first century. In April 2025, Governor Spencer Cox included Emery County among seventeen Utah counties in a drought emergency declaration, reflecting conditions in which southwestern Utah snowpack measured only 44 percent of normal. Such declarations unlock emergency water-sharing provisions and conservation mandates, but they cannot create water that does not exist.

The long-term trajectory is concerning. Climate models project declining annual snowpack across the Colorado Plateau, with warmer winters shifting the balance from snow to rain and earlier spring melt advancing the runoff peak. For Emery County, this means shorter filling windows for reservoirs, longer irrigation seasons with less water to allocate, and increased groundwater pumping to make up the deficit — a cycle that, if unchecked, draws down the aquifer storage that took centuries to accumulate.

Soil moisture conditions add a complicating factor. Dry soils before the onset of snowpack absorb a larger fraction of the initial melt, reducing the volume of water that reaches streams and reservoirs. In drought years, this “soil moisture deficit” can claim a significant portion of the snowmelt before it ever becomes available surface water.

3.12 Hydrologic Monitoring Networks & Citizen Science

Understanding Emery County’s water depends on measuring it, and the county benefits from several overlapping monitoring networks. The USGS operates real-time streamflow gages at key locations, including stations on the San Rafael River near Green River (USGS 09328500), the San Rafael River at its mouth (USGS 09328910), and the Green River at Green River (USGS 09315000). These stations transmit data via satellite to the USGS Water Data for the Nation portal, providing continuous records of discharge, gage height, and water temperature.

The Emery Water Conservancy District maintains its own monitoring infrastructure, including real-time data for reservoir levels, canal flows, and weather stations throughout the system. EWCD’s website (ewcd.org) provides public access to current conditions — a valuable resource for farmers, recreationists, and water managers alike.

At the state level, the Utah Geological Survey operates the Groundwater Monitoring Portal, a database containing more than twelve million records of well water levels, spring flows, and related measurements. The National Hydrography Dataset, available through the Utah SGID portal (gis.utah.gov), maps surface water features including streams, lakes, and springs with standardized attributes suitable for GIS analysis.

[needs additional sources] Community-based water monitoring and citizen science programs specific to Emery County have not been documented in the available literature. Given the county’s reliance on water and the increasing pressure of drought, a citizen science initiative — perhaps coordinated through EWCD, local schools, or the Castle Dale branch of the Utah State University Extension — could supplement the professional monitoring networks and build public awareness of water conditions. The Emery County Progress and community water meetings already serve an informal information-sharing role; formalizing this with standardized data collection could contribute meaningfully to long-term hydrologic understanding.

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Sources

1. USGS Scientific Investigations Report 2006/5186, “Hydrology and Water Quality in the Green River and Surrounding Agricultural Areas near Green River, Emery and Grand Counties, Utah, 2004–05” (Blanchard, 2006).
2. USGS, “Reconnaissance of the Quality of Surface Water in the San Rafael River Basin, Utah” (1978).
3. USGS Monitoring Location 09328500: San Rafael River near Green River, UT.
4. USGS Monitoring Location 09328910: San Rafael River at Mouth near Green River, UT.
5. USGS Monitoring Location 09315000: Green River at Green River, UT.
6. Bureau of Reclamation, “Emery County Project — Utah” project data sheet.
7. Geary, Edward A., “A History of Water Development in Emery County, Utah” (Waterhistory.org).
8. Simonds, William Joe, “A History of the Emery County Project” (Bureau of Reclamation Historical Research).
9. Utah Geological Survey, “Major Aquifers of Utah” (geology.utah.gov).
10. Utah Geological Survey, Groundwater Monitoring Portal (gwportal.geology.utah.gov).
11. Emery Water Conservancy District, real-time monitoring data (ewcd.org).
12. Utah Division of Water Rights, Area 93 — San Rafael Drainage (waterrights.utah.gov).
13. Drought.gov, Emery County drought conditions and declarations.
14. Utah GIS / SGID, Water Data Services and National Hydrography Dataset.
15. USGS Utah Water Science Center, statewide monitoring and research programs.

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Proposed Maps & Figures

1. Map: San Rafael River Drainage Basin — Show the three principal tributaries (Huntington, Cottonwood, Ferron Creeks), their convergence into the San Rafael River, the course through the San Rafael Swell, and the junction with the Green River. Mark USGS gaging stations, major reservoirs, and diversion points.
2. Map: Irrigation Infrastructure — Overlay canals, dams, diversions, and reservoirs on a Castle Valley base map. Show the Cottonwood Creek–Huntington Canal transfer route and the Swasey Diversion Dam location.
3. Figure: Seasonal Hydrograph — Plot mean monthly discharge at USGS 09328500 (San Rafael River near Green River) to illustrate the snowmelt-dominant flow regime and late-summer lows.
4. Figure: Dissolved Solids Profile — Chart dissolved solids concentrations from upstream diversion points (357 mg/L) through downstream return flows (4,170 mg/L), visualizing the 11.7× concentration increase.

Proposed Tables

1. Reservoir Capacities & Key Statistics — Joes Valley, Huntington North, Millsite, and other significant impoundments: capacity (acre-feet), surface area, dam type, year completed, managing entity.
2. Water Chemistry Comparison — Upstream diversion points vs. downstream return flows: dissolved solids, sulfate, selenium, strontium concentrations at representative sites (data from USGS SIR 2006/5186).
3. Canal Seepage Losses — May–October seepage volumes for Thayn Canal, East Side Canal, Green River Canal, and other measured conveyances.
4. USGS Gaging Stations in Emery County — Station number, name, location, period of record, key statistics (mean annual discharge, peak of record).

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Engagement Features

Did You Know?

• The 11.7x multiplier: Water diverted from the Green River for irrigation near the town of Green River contains about 357 milligrams per liter of dissolved solids. By the time it seeps back to the river through Mancos Shale soils, that number has jumped to 4,170 mg/L — nearly twelve times saltier. Every glass of irrigation water that enters the ground comes back carrying a load of ancient marine salts.

• Utah’s hidden reservoir: More than 95 percent of Utah’s water supply begins as snow. The Wasatch Plateau snowpack above Emery County is essentially a frozen reservoir that releases its water slowly each spring — no dam required.

• A deadly wall of water: On August 1, 2021, a flash flood roared down Bear Canyon near the Gentry Mountain coal mine, overturning mine vehicles and sweeping a worker six miles downstream. Flash floods in Emery County’s canyon country can strike with almost no warning during late-summer thunderstorms.

• The Great Basin Transfer: The Cottonwood Creek–Huntington Canal stretches 16.7 miles and effectively transfers water from one drainage basin to another — Cottonwood Creek’s water ends up irrigating farms in the Huntington Creek valley. It is one of the most ambitious pieces of water engineering in rural Utah.

Family Activity

Build a Mini Watershed Model Collect a large baking sheet or shallow plastic bin and some modeling clay or Play-Doh. Shape a miniature landscape with mountains on one end (the Wasatch Plateau), a valley in the middle (Castle Valley), and a river on the far side (the Green River). Use blue food coloring in a spray bottle to simulate rain and snowmelt. Watch how water flows downhill, collects in valleys, and reaches the “river.” Discuss: Where would you build a dam? Where would you dig a canal? Where might flash floods be most dangerous? This hands-on model demonstrates the same gravity-driven drainage that shapes every drop of water in Emery County.

Youth Challenge

The Water Detective Scavenger Hunt Visit one of these sites and complete the challenges:

1. Joes Valley Reservoir — Find the dam and estimate how tall it is compared to a nearby tree. Can you see where Seely Creek enters the reservoir? Take a photo of the dam face.
2. Huntington Creek or Cottonwood Creek — Find an irrigation diversion point (headgate or canal entrance). Is water being diverted today? Which direction does the canal go? Sketch the diversion structure in your notebook.
3. The Green River at Green River — Stand on the bridge and look upstream and downstream. Can you see where the San Rafael River enters from the west? What color is the water today? Clear, muddy, or somewhere in between? Record the date, time, and your observation.
4. Any slot canyon in the San Rafael Swell (with adult supervision) — Look for high-water marks on the canyon walls. How high above the current canyon floor do the marks reach? What kind of debris has been left behind by past floods?

Bonus challenge: Visit the USGS Water Data website (waterdata.usgs.gov) and look up the current streamflow at station 09328500 (San Rafael River near Green River). Record the discharge in cubic feet per second. Come back a month later and compare. What changed, and why?

Field Trip

The Water Trail: From Snowmelt to Salt — A Full-Day Driving Itinerary

This route traces Emery County’s water from its mountain source to the Green River, following the same path the water takes.

Stop 1: Huntington Canyon (SR-31) — Drive up Huntington Canyon and pull over at one of the trailheads above 8,000 feet. In spring, you may see snowmelt cascading down the mountainside. This is where Emery County’s water supply begins.

Stop 2: Huntington North Reservoir — Continue to the reservoir. Check the EWCD website (ewcd.org) before your trip to see current water levels. In a drought year, the contrast between the high-water mark and the actual shoreline tells a powerful story.

Stop 3: A Castle Valley Canal — Drive through the farming communities of Huntington, Castle Dale, or Orangeville and look for irrigation canals running alongside the roads. In summer, these canals carry the mountain water to fields of alfalfa, grain, and pasture.

Stop 4: San Rafael River Crossing (I-70) — Where Interstate 70 crosses the San Rafael River east of the San Rafael Swell, stop at the rest area or pulloff. The river here may be flowing strongly in May or reduced to a trickle in August. Notice the Mancos Shale badlands on either side — this is where the water picks up the salts that make downstream water quality so poor.

Stop 5: Green River (town) — End at the Green River, where all of Emery County’s water ultimately arrives. Visit the river access at Green River State Park. If you started your day in Huntington Canyon, you have followed a drop of water across roughly 80 miles and 6,000 feet of elevation — the same journey that snowmelt makes every spring.

Total driving distance: Approximately 120 miles. Allow a full day with stops.