Lake Pueblo State Park facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Lake Pueblo State Park |
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Lake Pueblo and the dam.
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 Lake Pueblo State Park
Location in Colorado
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| Location | Pueblo County, Colorado, USA |
| Nearest city | Pueblo, CO |
| Area | 10,279 acres (41.60 km2) |
| Established | 1975 |
| Governing body | Colorado Parks and Wildlife |
Lake Pueblo State Park is a state park located in Pueblo County, Colorado. It includes 60 miles (97 km) of shoreline and 10,000 acres (40 km2) of land. Activities it offers include two full-service marinas, recreational fishing, hiking, camping and swimming at a special swim beach.
Lake Pueblo
Lake Pueblo (also known as Pueblo Reservoir) has a maximum depth of 135 feet (41 m) and is impounded by Pueblo Dam.
Lake Pueblo is host to many water recreation activities including sailing, motor-boating, waterskiing, wakeboarding, wakesurfing, river tubing and prime fishing.
History
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.
In addition to the reservoir, the Park also encompasses the Lake Pueblo Fish Hatchery and Rock Canyon Swim Beach, located just downstream of Pueblo Dam along the shoreline of the Arkansas River. Today, Lake Pueblo serves as the Fry–Ark's primary storage vessel for the lower Arkansas Valley. The Lake is able to store a total of 357,678 acre-feet (441,189,000 m3) of water when at full capacity. Levels in 2009 were reported as a total of 234,347 in active acre-feet storage of water.
Wildlife
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.
