The transition that has taken place in the Colorado River Basin is astounding.

The Colorado River Basin is in its 23rd year of a historic drought.

This is where it starts.

Water that falls in Colorado is not just Colorado's water.

So if there's no water, there is no water.

Snowpack was near to slightly below normal.

And the compact that was signed 100 years ago

is based on a climate that no longer exists.

The Colorado River is the sixth longest in the United States.

It runs over 1,400 miles through seven states and serves as a water source for millions of people across American Southwest.

But the river carries a lot less water than it once did, and its reservoirs are drying up.

In episode one of our special series on this vital waterway,

we gave an overview of its problems.

Today, we'll go straight to the start of the river.

I'm Gustavariano.

You're listening to The Times, Essential News, from the LA Times.

It's Friday, January 13, 2023. Today we go to the snowpack of Rocky Mountain National Park,

birthplace of22 Colorado River Compact divided the river's

water evenly between the upper basin states of Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming,

and the lower basin states, Nevada, California, and Arizona. But the upper basin states of Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming, and the lower basin states, Nevada, California, and Arizona.

But the upper basin states are seeing much less snow, which could spell disaster for everyone else.

My Times colleagues, water reporter Ian James and video journalist Albert Lee, they've traveled to the river's headwaters to understand what's happening.

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