Piedra River

Piedra River may refer to:

Piedra River (Colorado)

The Piedra River (also known as El Rio De La Piedra Parada, Pedra, Rio, and Rio Piedre) is a river in the U.S. state of Colorado. It drains parts of Archuleta, Hinsdale, and Mineral counties along a mainstem length of about 40 miles (64 km). The river flows through a series of isolated box canyons, emptying into the San Juan River at Navajo Lake. Its name stems from the Spanish word, piedra, meaning rock.

Course

The Piedra River is formed by the confluence of its East Fork and Middle Fork, deep in the San Juan Mountains. The Middle Fork, larger of the two, rises in a bowl-shaped valley in the San Juan National Forest. It flows southwards, and forms the Piedra after a journey of 12.5 miles (20.1 km). The East Fork starts at a small unnamed lake in the Rio Grande National Forest and flows southwest for about 11 miles (18 km). The Piedra flows through open meadows, then drops into a canyon, receiving O'Neal Creek from the left and Williams, Weimuche and Sand Creeks from the right. The river angles to the southwest and receives the First Fork Piedra River from the right, and after the confluence, flows more in a southerly direction. It receives Heffin and Yellowjacket Creeks, both from the right, and at the confluence with the latter, flows past the town of Piedra and crosses under U.S. Highway 160. Its canyon widens into a valley, and flowing south-southeast alongside a ridge, the river receives Devil Creek from the left and receives Stollsteimer Creek from the left at Stollsteimer. The river then angles southwest, now running alongside State Highway 151. It enters Navajo Reservoir near the town of Arboles, near the New Mexico state line. Its confluence with the San Juan River, inside Navajo State Park, is drowned under the waters of the reservoir.

Piedra (Spain)

The Piedra (Spanish: Río Piedra) is a river in the Iberian System area, Spain. It is a tributary of the river Jalón. The waters have a high concentration of calcium carbonate which is deposited on plant life near the source, giving the river its name Río Piedra, which means 'stone river' in English.

The population of the endangered European freshwater crayfish in the river and its tributaries has practically disappeared owing to the introduction of the North American signal crayfish (Pacifastacus leniusculus).

Geography

It rises near Campillo de Dueñas, in the province of Guadalajara, Castile-La Mancha. The Piedra has an irregular flow, due to the long dry season of the summer months, with often heavy rainfall in the spring and autumn. The mean discharge at Monasterio de Piedra is 1.22 cubic metres per second (43 cu ft/s).

The river is often said to rise at Cimballa, in the province of Zaragoza, but it actually rises near Campillo de Dueñas, although the upper reaches are often dry in the summer months. Springs at Campillo amplify the flow, so that it always has water below this point.