| Lake Pueblo State Park | |
| Map: | USA Colorado |
| Map Width: | 260 |
| Photo Width: | 250px |
| Location: | Pueblo County, Colorado, USA |
| Nearest City: | Pueblo, CO |
| Coordinates: | 38.2547°N -104.7323°W |
| Area: | 10279acres |
| Established: | 1975 |
| Visitation Num: | 5,112,753 |
| Visitation Year: | 2021 |
| Visitation Ref: | [1] |
| Governing Body: | Colorado Parks and Wildlife |
Lake Pueblo State Park is a state park located in Pueblo County, Colorado. It includes 60miles of shoreline and 10000acres of land. Activities it offers include two full-service marinas, recreational fishing, hiking, camping and swimming at a special swim beach.[2]
Lake Pueblo (also known as Pueblo Reservoir) has a maximum depth of 135feet and is impounded by Pueblo Dam. Its surface elevation is 4826feet.[3] [4]
Lake Pueblo is host to many water recreation activities including sailing, motor-boating, waterskiing, wakeboarding, wakesurfing, river tubing and prime fishing. [5]
Pueblo Dam was constructed from 1970–1975 across the Arkansas River in Pueblo County as part of the Bureau of Reclamation's Fryingpan-Arkansas Project. While the primary purpose of the reservoir is to provide supplemental water for agricultural, municipal, and industrial uses, water from Pueblo also helps enhance recreation, fish and wildlife. Additionally, and unlike most reservoirs Reclamation constructed in Colorado, the Pueblo Dam provides for flood control because the Arkansas River has a history of flooding roughly every ten years, the most notable of which was in 1921.
The dam, NID ID CO00299, is a buttress concrete structure completed in 1975. It is 250feet tall and 10230feet long. It can store as much as 489116acre.ft of water and has a surface area of 5671acres.[6]
The dam was retrofitted with a 7.5 megawatt hydroelectric power plant in 2019. Called the James W. Broderick Hydropower Plant, it has three turbines and two generators and does not consume any water.[7]
The land surrounding the reservoir is very diverse. Mammals commonly sited or observed at the park include mule deer, coyote, cottontail rabbit, red fox, gray fox, beaver, raccoon, skunk, prairie dogs, and badger. It also plays home to many different reptile species bull snakes, rattlesnakes, sagebrush lizards, coach whips, and box turtles. It is notable in that it also home to a rare species of serpent, the blackneck garter snake.[8]
Fish here include smallmouth bass, largemouth bass, spotted bass, walleye, crappie, bluegill, wiper, channel catfish, flathead catfish, blue catfish, rainbow trout, common carp, gizzard shad, and white suckers. Lake Pueblo State Park is also home to the Pueblo Hatchery, managed by the Colorado Department of Parks and Wildlife.[9]