South Platte River Drainage

A major hydrologic system located in the Front Range is the South Platte River drainage. The South Platte River is one of the two principal tributaries of the Platte River and itself a major river of the American West, located in the U.S. states of Colorado and Nebraska. It drains much of the eastern flank of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado, as well as much of the populated region known as the Colorado Front Range and Eastern Plains. It forms the Platte at its confluence with the North Platte River in western Nebraska. The river serves as the principal source of water for eastern Colorado. Its valley along the foothills in Colorado has provided for agriculture in an area of the Colorado Piedmont and Great Plains that is otherwise arid. Its drainage basin also includes a portion of southeastern Wyoming in the vicinity of the city of Cheyenne. Courtesy USFS.

Map of South Platte River drainage, courtesy USFS.