Pecos River

The Pecos River flows through New Mexico and Texas, emptying into the Rio Grande. The headwaters of the Pecos River are located north of Pecos, New Mexico, United States, at an elevation of over 12,000 feet (3,700 m) feet on the western slope of the Sangre de Cristo mountain range in Mora County. The river flows for 926 miles (1,490 km) through the eastern portion of that state and neighboring Texas before it empties into the Rio Grande near Del Rio. The river's drainage basin is about 44,300 square miles (115,000 km²) in size.

Modifications

Multiple dams have been built along the Pecos River. Santa Rosa Lake is 117 miles/188 km east of Albuquerque. Sumner Lake, formed by the 1939 Sumner Dam, is located between Santa Rosa and Fort Sumner, NM. Two dams are located north of Carlsbad, New Mexico, at Avalon Dam and Brantley Dam, to help irrigate about 25,000 acres (10,000 ha) as part of the Carlsbad reclamation project (established in 1906). Texas has also dammed the river at the Red Bluff Dam in the western part of that state to form the Red Bluff Reservoir. The portion of the reservoir that extends into New Mexico forms the lowest point in that state.