Why Rent On Blue Mesa Reservoir

Blue Mesa Reservoir is Colorado’s largest body of water, stretching over 20 miles and covering 9,180 acres within the Curecanti National Recreation Area just 23 miles from Gunnison. The lake occupies a series of dramatic mesa-and-canyon landscapes that are entirely unlike the forested mountain lakes of the northern Colorado Rockies: here the rock is rust-red and gray, the mesas are flat-topped and immense, and the blue water filling the Gunnison River canyon seems impossibly vivid against the surrounding geology. This is western Colorado at its most cinematic.

Gunnison Cabin Rentals as Your High-Country Base

Vacation rentals and cabin stays in the Gunnison area give families a full-service home base for exploring Blue Mesa Reservoir and the surrounding Curecanti National Recreation Area. A rental with a full kitchen, multiple bedrooms, and a deck with mesa views gives your group the space and comfort to sustain a multi-week stay in what is one of Colorado’s most naturally rich regions. Gunnison itself is a genuine Colorado mountain town with a university, excellent dining, and a warmth that makes it a far more satisfying base city than its modest size suggests.

Boat, Sail, Fish for Lake Trout, and Kayak the Dillon Pinnacles

Full-service marinas including Elk Creek Marina provide boat rentals, slips, and fishing gear for guests who want to cover the lake’s 20-mile length properly. Sailing and kayaking are popular across the open stretches, while kokanee salmon and lake trout make Blue Mesa one of Colorado’s premier trophy fishing destinations. The Dillon Pinnacles Trail, one of the Curecanti NRA’s signature hikes, follows the lake’s northern shore through a surreal landscape of volcanic spires that rises directly from the water’s edge.

Three Reservoirs, One Remarkable System

Blue Mesa sits at the head of a system of three reservoirs on the Gunnison River: Morrow Point and Crystal reservoirs extend downstream into progressively deeper and more remote canyon terrain. Day trips by kayak or hiking trail into Morrow Point Reservoir’s fjord-like walls, or the drive to Crystal Reservoir’s dramatic Black Canyon overlooks, give a week at Blue Mesa a variety and range that a single-lake destination cannot offer. The entire Wayne N. Aspinall Unit of the Colorado River Storage Project is one of America’s most impressive combined feats of water engineering and natural beauty.

Crested Butte Just Over the Mountain

Crested Butte, accessible from Gunnison by a 30-minute drive, adds one of Colorado’s most beloved and most photogenic mountain towns to the Blue Mesa experience. The wildflower season along Kebler Pass, connecting Crested Butte to Paonia through aspen forest, is among the most spectacular in the American West, and the Crested Butte Mountain Resort offers summer hiking and mountain biking alongside its winter skiing operations. A rental near Blue Mesa Reservoir with Crested Butte on the radar gives your family a Colorado mountain week that covers a truly extraordinary range of terrain and experience.