Major Tributaries
The Colorado is joined by over twenty-five significant tributaries, of which the Green River is the largest by both length and discharge, taking drainage from the Wind River Range of west-central Wyoming, Utah's Uinta Mountains and the Rockies of northwestern Colorado. The Gila River is the second longest and drains a greater area, but even in its natural state it averaged less than a third of the Green's flow because of its significantly more arid watershed. Both the Gunnison and the San Juan Rivers, which derive most of their water from Rocky Mountains snowmelt, contribute more water than the Gila did naturally.
| Statistics of the Colorado's longest tributaries | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name | State | Length | Watershed | Discharge | |||
| mi | km | mi2 | km2 | cfs | m3/s | ||
| Green River | UT | 730 | 1,170 | 48,100 | 125,000 | 6,048 | 171.3 |
| Gila River | AZ | 649 | 1,044 | 58,200 | 151,000 | 247 | 7.0 |
| San Juan River | UT | 383 | 616 | 24,600 | 64,000 | 2,192 | 62.1 |
| Little Colorado River | AZ | 356 | 573 | 26,500 | 69,000 | 424 | 12.0 |
| Dolores River | UT | 229 | 369 | 4,574 | 11,850 | 633 | 17.9 |
| Gunnison River | CO | 164 | 264 | 7,930 | 20,500 | 2,570 | 73 |
| Virgin River | NV | 162 | 261 | 13,020 | 33,700 | 239 | 6.8 |
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