Kawuneeche Valley

Kawuneeche Valley, also known as Kawuneeche or Coyote Valley, is a marshy valley of the Colorado River near its beginning. It is located on the west side of Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado. The axis of the valley runs almost directly north to south. Kawuneeche means "valley of the coyote" in Arapaho language and there is a Coyote Valley Trail head by US Route 34 in the western half of the park.Coyotes still live here, as do wapiti (elk), mule deer, moose (reintroduced in 1978 into nearby North Park), and mountain lion.

Along the main part of valley runs the lower section of the Trail Ridge Road - the highest continuous paved road in the United States.

The construction of the a water diversion canal called Grand Ditch between the 1890s and 1930s reduced the water table and limited the frequency and magnitude of the floods in the Kawuneeche Valley. Grand Ditch collects water from Colorado River’s tributaries in the Never Summer Mountains like a rain gutter from the roof and diverts it on the other side of the Continental Divide to the Cache La Poudre River via La Poudre Pass, instead of allowing it to flow down to the valley. In addition, Grand Ditch breached its bank on May 30, 2003 and a resulting debris flow caused extensive injury to the upper Kawuneeche Valley. The Grand Ditch owner - the Water Supply and Storage Company (WSSC) was ordered to pay $9 million settlement to the Rocky Mountain National Park. It was the largest natural resource damages payment in the history of the Park System Resource Protection Act. Grand Ditch exerts also negative aesthetic impact on the Kawuneeche.

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