Gates of Lodore Trail Stop 13

The power of the Green River slowly carved the Canyon of Lodore.

NPS Photo/Conrad Provan

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The Green River, after meandering calmly through Browns Park, turns southward and cuts directly across the Uinta Mountains, which rise 3,000 feet above the valley floor. No one knows for sure why this is the case, but one theory suggests that a few million years ago the river flowed eastward, away from the mountains. When that route was blocked by uplift along the present continental divide, drainage in this area stagnated. Browns Park gradually filled to the brim with sediments. Meandering along on top of that fill, the Green River eventually spilled over the buried crest of the mountains and down their southern slope. This gave it the energy to begin down cutting once more and as it washed out most of the recent sediments, it also rasped its way into the older rocks to carve the Canyon of Lodore.