It sounds like an advertisement for bottled water: The flowing Colorado River emerges high in the Rocky Mountains, from snows untouched by man. It tumbles down through seven states and the two largest reservoirs in the country, lakes Powell and Mead, crossing some 1,450 miles. Along the way, it winds through the Grand Canyon, a project 6 million years in the making.
But the storied river’s final flourish, to empty into the Gulf of California, doesn’t happen anymore. The once vibrant Colorado River Delta is now just a dried-up riverbed on most days. What's left of the mighty river sits hemmed in by the Morelos Dam on the U.S.-Mexico border, which releases only a small stream.
