River
Virgin River
261 km from source to mouth · United States.
United StatesFlows into Colorado River
In numbers
Length
261km
Average flow
6.0m³/s
Basin
31,727km²
Drop
1,518m
from 1,889 m to 371 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
261 km of river and 15 stops on the way: 10 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 1,889 m
- 48 kmRockville226 people
- 48 kmRockville Bridge
- 50 kmNorth Fork Virgin Rivertributary
- 75 kmLa Verkin4,354 people
- 76 kmLaVerkin4,060 people
- 77 kmHurricane-LaVerkin Bridge
- 80 kmAsh Creektributary
- 85 kmHurricane20,036 people
- 92 kmQuail Creek Reservoir2.3 km²
- 110 kmWashington27,993 people
- 120 kmSt. George95,342 people
- 120 kmSaint George72,897 people
- 174 kmLittlefield256 people
- 195 kmMesquite20,471 people
- 204 kmBunkerville1,069 people
- 261 kmColorado Riverat 371 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, Arizona, and Nevada in the United States
At the mouth it carries 6.0 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 417 seconds. It drops from 1,889 m to 371 m, 5.8 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 31,727 km², about the size of BE. 165,000 people live in it. Highest water: from February to March; lowest: from June to September. Its dams hold back little of its water (8.8% of a year's flow).
Where to start
- St. GeorgeLargest city on its banks · 95,342 people
- St George Regional Airport (SGU)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 9 km from the cityCar hire at SGU airport (St George)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water5 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- Kayak and canoe1 put-ins and rapids mapped (OpenStreetMap)
- From April to May and from September to OctoberThe best months to visit
Virgin River, month by month
Highest water: from February to March
Lowest water: from June to September. Best months to visit: from April to May and from September to October.
From about 3.2 m³/s in the lowest month to 110 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
Virgin River: the basin in numbers
15,601 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 165,000people live in the basin
- 11/km²people per km²
- 1,452maverage altitude of the basin
- 316mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 12.7°Caverage air temperature
- 22%protected areas
- 0.1%covered by lakes
- 0.1km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 26% Forest
- 2% Cropland
- 61% Pasture
- 1% Towns and cities
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
Virgin River: what you find on the way
- 16WeirsQuail Creek Diversion, Stateline Barrier and 14 more
- 17WaterfallsMystery Canyon Falls, Menu Falls, Lower Pine Creek Waterfall and 14 more
- 1Rapids
- 4Boat ramps
- 1River beachesOld Swim Beach
From OpenStreetMap, within 1.9 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Virgin 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
17mountains at the sourcePeakyas
Lakes and reservoirs (1)
Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas
- Quail Creek Reservoirkm 802.3km²
Lakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗
Mountains at the source (17)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Cedar Breaks12 km away2,933m
- Corry Point6.4 km away2,552m
- Andy Nelson Peak2.7 km away
- Black Mountain9.6 km away
- Blowhard Mountain8.2 km away
- Gooseberry Point4.2 km away
- Hancock Peak15 km away
- Horse Knoll6.4 km away
9 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
Virgin River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
Colorado River
Mexico2,334 km640 m³/sTributaries (7)
Also: Muddy River, Ash Creek, Santa Clara River, East Fork Virgin River, North Fork Virgin River, La Verkin Creek, Fort Pearce Wash
Where these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q1676970) · 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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islands
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