River
San Juan River
616 km from source to mouth · United States.
United StatesFlows into Colorado River
In numbers
Length
616km
Average flow
62m³/s
Basin
63,714km²
Drop
1,160m
from 2,281 m to 1,121 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
616 km of river and 18 stops on the way: 6 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSan Juan Mountainsat 2,281 m
- 39 kmRio Blancotributary
- 61 kmNavajo Rivertributary
- 86 kmPiedra Rivertributary
- 122 kmNavajo Lake52 km²
- 128 kmLos Pinos Rivertributary
- 171 kmBloomfield7,421 people
- 176 kmLee Acres5,858 people
- 199 kmFarmington46,624 people
- 199 kmAnimas Rivertributary
- 203 kmLa Plata Rivertributary
- 214 kmKirtland7,875 people
- 254 kmSan Juan River Bridge at Shiprock
- 254 kmShiprock8,295 people
- 302 kmMancos Rivertributary
- 357 kmMontezuma Creek284 people
- 411 kmChinle Creektributary
- 434 kmJason R. Workman Memorial Bridge
- 443 kmGoosenecks State Park
- 616 kmColorado Riverat 1,121 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
Tributary of the Colorado River in Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico in the United States
At the mouth it carries 62 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 40 seconds. It drops from 2,281 m to 1,121 m, 1.9 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 63,714 km², about the size of LV. 287,000 people live in it. Highest water: from February to April; lowest: January and from May to July. It is heavily dammed: reservoirs can hold 54% of a year's flow.
Where to start
- FarmingtonLargest city on its banks · 46,624 people
- Durango La Plata County Airport (DRO)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 62 km from the cityCar hire at DRO airport (Durango)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water6 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- Kayak and canoe7 put-ins and rapids mapped (OpenStreetMap)
- From May to SeptemberThe best months to visit
San Juan River, month by month
Highest water: from February to April
Lowest water: January and from May to July. Best months to visit: from May to September.
From about 21 m³/s in the lowest month to 200 m³/s in the highest. An estimate: the monthly flow is modelled from the lowest and highest months of WaterGAP (RiverATLAS, 1971–2000) and the rain and snow along the river (WorldClim). Dams change the real rhythm. The chip is the average air temperature; below it, the month's rain.
Plan the trip
Plan the trip: boat trips, a bed by the river, a car
Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.
The basin
San Juan River: the basin in numbers
64,725 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 287,000people live in the basin
- 4/km²people per km²
- 1,992maverage altitude of the basin
- 332mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 9.1°Caverage air temperature
- 10%protected areas
- 0.2%covered by lakes
- 1.6km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 29% Forest
- 3% Cropland
- 48% Pasture
RiverATLAS (HydroATLAS v1.0, CC BY 4.0): land cover, people, protected areas, glaciers and dams over the whole basin upstream of the mouth.
Along the river
San Juan River: what you find on the way
- 35Weirs
- 7Waterfalls
- 7RapidsFour Foot Rapids, Eight Foot Rapids, Ledge Rapids and 4 more
- 5Boat rampsNavajo State Park Boat Ramp, Sand Island Boat Launch, Mexican Hat Access and 2 more
- 1MarinasTwo Rivers Marina
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.3 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
San Juan River in our other atlases
What our sister atlases know about the waterfalls on this river, the lakes it flows through, the beaches at its mouth, the mountains where it rises and the islands off its mouth.
1lake on its wayLakeyas
13mountains at the sourcePeakyas
Lakes and reservoirs (1)
Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas
- Navajo Lakekm 11052km²
Lakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗
Mountains at the source (13)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Cade Mountain15 km away
- Eagle Mountain13 km away
- Quien Sabe Mountain12 km away
- Alberta Peak14 km away
- Blackhead Peak14 km away
- Indian Head5.3 km away
- Jackson Mountain7.5 km away
- Nipple Mountain14 km away
5 more on PeakyasOpen Peakyas ↗
From space
The source and the mouth, seen from orbit
Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 by EOX IT Services GmbH (contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2016), CC BY 4.0. The glowing line is the river as drawn by RiverATLAS.
Photos
San Juan River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
Colorado River
Mexico2,334 km640 m³/sTributaries (13)
Also: Animas River, La Plata River, Navajo River, Mancos River, Piedra River, Chinle Creek, Chaco Wash, Los Pinos River, Rio Blanco, West Fork San Juan River, East Fork San Juan River, McElmo Creek, Recapture Creek
Where these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q1542874) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Course, profile, basin | RiverATLAS v1.0 (HydroATLAS, Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 — followed from the source to the mouth given by Wikidata |
| Flow | WaterGAP (RiverATLAS), 1971–2000 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Climate along the river | WorldClim (RiverATLAS), 1970–2000 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Towns, bridges, dams | Wikidata · CC0; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0 |
| Along the river | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
| Our other atlases | Lakeyas, Peakyas — Wikidata · CC0; © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0; HydroLAKES · CC BY 4.0; NOAA OISST |
Every source and licence is on the data sources page.
The family
Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers or canyons?
Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, month by month, in seven languages.
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Every island from the sea up: size, sea temperature, ferries and 3D.Coming soonVisit 
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Every river from source to sea: the journey, the flow and the basin in numbers.You are here
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Every canyon cut to scale: depth to the floor, rim and floor temperatures, trails and viewpoints.Coming soonVisit