Paradox Valley

Paradox Valley
Paradox Valley as seen from near the southwest rim. The Dolores River is at the left edge.
Paradox Valley The location of Paradox Valley within Colorado
Location	Montrose County, Colorado, United States
Floor elevation	4,944 ft (1,507 m)
Long-axis direction	NW-SE
Long-axis length	25 miles (40 km)
Width	3 to 5 miles (4.8 to 8.0 km)
Geography
Coordinates	38°19′N 108°51′W / 38.317°N 108.850°W / 38.317; -108.850Coordinates: 38°19′N 108°51′W / 38.317°N 108.850°W / 38.317; -108.850

Paradox Valley is a basin located in Montrose County in the U.S. state of Colorado. The dry, sparsely populated valley is named after the apparently paradoxical course of the Dolores River—instead of flowing down the length of the valley, the river cuts across the middle. The valley is the site of a Bureau of Reclamation salinity-control project which has caused thousands of earthquakes, and is the proposed location of a new uranium mill which would be the first built in the United States in over 25 years.

Paradox Valley trends northwest-southeast and measures about 3 to 5 miles (5 to 8 km) wide and 25 miles (40 km) long. It lies along the extreme western edge of Colorado, about 50 miles (80 km) south of the city of Grand Junction. The La Sal Range of Utah rises in the northwest. State Highway 90 follows Paradox Valley on its way from Naturita to the Utah state line, crossing the historic Dolores River Bridge near the small unincorporated town of Bedrock. The town of Paradox lies a few miles north of the highway. Elevations on the valley floor range from about 5,000 feet (1,500 m) at the Dolores River to nearly 6,000 feet (1,800 m) at the southeast end. Steep parallel sandstone and shale walls bound the valley to the northeast and southwest.

The valley was named in 1875 by geologist and surveyor Albert Charles Peale, after he noted that the Dolores River had a "desire to perform strange and unexpected things" in the area. Instead of flowing down the valley, the river emerges from a narrow gap in one wall, cuts perpendicularly across the middle, and exits through another gap. As a consequence of this unusual geography, the valley cannot be easily irrigated by the Dolores River, but springs and streams fed by snowmelt from the La Sal Range support farming in the northwestern third