Cache La Poudre River

Cache la Poudre River
River
Cache La Poudre River as it flows through Fort Collins, Colorado.
Country	United States
State	Colorado
Tributaries
- left	North Fork Cache la Poudre River
- right	South Fork Cache la Poudre River
Cities	Fort Collins, Greeley
Source	Rocky Mountains
- location	Rocky Mountain National Park
- elevation	10,755 ft (3,278 m)
- coordinates	40°25′29″N 105°48′24″W / 40.42472°N 105.80667°W / 40.42472; -105.80667
Mouth	South Platte River
- location	Near Greeley
- elevation	4,600 ft (1,402 m)
- coordinates	40°25′17″N 104°36′3″W / 40.42139°N 104.60083°W / 40.42139; -104.60083Coordinates: 40°25′17″N 104°36′3″W / 40.42139°N 104.60083°W / 40.42139; -104.60083
Length	126 mi (203 km)
Discharge	for Fort Collins
- average	162 cu ft/s (4.6 m3/s)
- max	6,080 cu ft/s (172.2 m3/s)
- min	0 cu ft/s (0.0 m3/s)

The Cache la Poudre River (ⁱ/ˌkæʃ ləˈpuːdər/), also known as the Poudre River, is a river in the state of Colorado in the United States.

The name of the river (French for "Hide the Powder") is a corruption of the original Cache à la Poudre or "cache of powder". It refers to an incident in the 1820s when French trappers, caught by a snowstorm, were forced to bury part of their gunpowder along the banks of the river.

Its headwaters are in the Front Range in Larimer County, in the northern part of Rocky Mountain National Park. The river descends eastward in the mountains through the Roosevelt National Forest in Poudre Canyon. It emerges from the foothills north of the city of Fort Collins.