Stream
Pecos River
1,560 km from source to mouth · United States.
United StatesFlows into Rio Grande9th longest in United States
In numbers
Length
1,560km
Average flow
8.0m³/s
Basin
115,000km²
Drop
2,224m
from 2,560 m to 336 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
1,560 km of river and 19 stops on the way: 14 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 2,560 m
- 73 kmEspañola10,224 people
- 124 kmCochiti Reservoir4.3 km²
- 166 kmBernalillo8,843 people
- 175 kmCorrales8,502 people
- 184 kmNorth Valley11,333 people
- 198 kmAlbuquerque564,559 people
- 206 kmSouth Valley40,976 people
- 231 kmLos Lunas15,336 people
- 323 kmSocorro8,722 people
- 440 kmElephant Butte Reservoir110 km²
- 475 kmCaballo Lake28 km²
- 631 kmSunland Park15,940 people
- 641 kmEl Paso678,815 people
- 644 kmCiudad Juárez1,512,450 people
- 666 kmSocorro Mission Number 1 Colonia28,637 people
- 672 kmSan Elizario8,999 people
- 990 kmManuel Ojinaga22,744 people
- 1,440 kmPecos River High Bridge
- 1,450 kmPecos River Bridge
- 1,560 kmRio Grandeat 336 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in New Mexico and Texas in the United States
At the mouth it carries 8.0 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 312 seconds. It drops from 2,560 m to 336 m, 1.4 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 115,000 km², about the size of BJ. 5.1 million people live in it. Highest water: from September to October; lowest: from March to June. It is heavily dammed: reservoirs can hold 262% of a year's flow.
Where to start
- Ciudad JuárezLargest city on its banks · 1,512,450 people
- Abraham González International Airport (CJS)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 10 km from the cityCar hire at ELP airport (El Paso)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water38 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- Kayak and canoe4 put-ins and rapids mapped (OpenStreetMap)
- From April to June and from September to OctoberThe best months to visit
Pecos River, month by month
Highest water: from September to October
Lowest water: from March to June. Best months to visit: from April to June and from September to October.
From about 48 m³/s in the lowest month to 330 m³/s in the highest. An estimate: the monthly flow is modelled from the lowest and highest months of WaterGAP (RiverATLAS, 1971–2000) and the rain and snow along the river (WorldClim). Dams change the real rhythm. The chip is the average air temperature; below it, the month's rain.
Plan the trip
Plan the trip: boat trips, a bed by the river, a car
Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.
The basin
Pecos River: the basin in numbers
221,055 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 5.1millionpeople live in the basin
- 23/km²people per km²
- 1,714maverage altitude of the basin
- 374mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 13.9°Caverage air temperature
- 10%protected areas
- 0.2%covered by lakes
- 12km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 23% Forest
- 4% Cropland
- 54% Pasture
- 1% Towns and cities
RiverATLAS (HydroATLAS v1.0, CC BY 4.0): land cover, people, protected areas, glaciers and dams over the whole basin upstream of the mouth.
Along the river
Pecos River: what you find on the way
- 52WeirsLos Luceros Diversion Dam, Enchanted Hills Detention Dam Number 1, San Acacia Diversion Dam and 49 more
- 35Locks
- 11WaterfallsUpper Frijoles Falls, Lower Frijoles Falls and 9 more
- 4RapidsAncho Rapid and 3 more
- 36Boat rampsTetilla Boat Ramp, Laijtas Launch and 34 more
- 2MarinasMarina del Sur, Dam Site Marina
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.6 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Pecos River in our other atlases
What our sister atlases know about the waterfalls on this river, the lakes it flows through, the beaches at its mouth, the mountains where it rises and the islands off its mouth.
3lakes on its wayLakeyas
19mountains at the sourcePeakyas
Lakes and reservoirs (3)
Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas
- Cochiti Reservoirkm 1234.3km²
- Elephant Butte Reservoirkm 437110km²
- Caballo Lakekm 47328km²
Lakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗
Mountains at the source (19)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Truchas Peak7.9 km away · prominence 1,220 m3,995m
- Jicarita Peak9.0 km away
- Cerrito del Padre5.3 km away
- Chimayosos Peak4.6 km away
- East Pecos Baldy11 km away
- Hamilton Mesa8.7 km away
- Middle Truchas Peak8.2 km away
- North Truchas Peak6.6 km away
11 more on PeakyasOpen Peakyas ↗
From space
The source and the mouth, seen from orbit
Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 by EOX IT Services GmbH (contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2016), CC BY 4.0. The glowing line is the river as drawn by RiverATLAS.
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
Rio GrandeUnited States3,051 km85 m³/sTributaries (4)
Also: Rio Hondo, Toyah Creek, Tunas Creek, Howard Draw
In the same basin
MexicoWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q1356561) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Course, profile, basin | RiverATLAS v1.0 (HydroATLAS, Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 — followed from the source to the mouth given by Wikidata |
| Flow | WaterGAP (RiverATLAS), 1971–2000 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Climate along the river | WorldClim (RiverATLAS), 1970–2000 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Towns, bridges, dams | Wikidata · CC0; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0 |
| Along the river | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
| Our other atlases | Lakeyas, Peakyas — Wikidata · CC0; © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0; HydroLAKES · CC BY 4.0; NOAA OISST |
Every source and licence is on the data sources page.
The family
Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers or canyons?
Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, month by month, in seven languages.
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Every canyon cut to scale: depth to the floor, rim and floor temperatures, trails and viewpoints.Coming soonVisit