Red Fleet Reservoir Water Level
Red Fleet Reservoir is at 5,566.14 ft (last reported Oct 24), 42.16 ft below its 5,608.3 ft full pool.
Utah · Big Brush Creek
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Water level history
About Red Fleet Reservoir
Red Fleet Reservoir is a reservoir on the Big Brush Creek in Utah, operated by U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. Its full summer pool sits at 5608.3 ft above sea level. Live water levels come from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (CWMS) and update hourly.
Understanding Red Fleet Reservoir's water level
Red Fleet is a drinking water reservoir first. The Bureau of Reclamation built the dam on Big Brush Creek, about ten miles northeast of town, between 1977 and 1980 as the main storage feature of the Central Utah Project's Jensen Unit. It is a zoned earthfill embankment 1,670 feet long, holding about 26,000 acre-feet, of which 24,000 acre-feet are active storage. The Jensen Unit develops roughly 22,600 acre-feet a year: 18,000 for municipal and industrial use and 4,600 for irrigation of about 4,080 acres of alfalfa, barley, corn silage and pasture. The Tyzack Pumping Plant lifts water out of the reservoir and the Tyzack Aqueduct carries it to the Ashley Valley Water Treatment Plant, which serves Vernal and the Jensen water districts. Reclamation still owns the dam, but the Uintah Water Conservancy District has run the unit day to day since 1 October 1988 and repays its construction costs.
The pool is large for its watershed. Big Brush Creek drains only 83 square miles above the dam, and the same reservoir has to cover the unit's municipal contracts and its irrigation deliveries. Reclamation lists the spillway crest and top of the joint use pool at 5,608.2 feet, where the lake spreads over 521 acres. The top of the active conservation pool sits at 5,560.7, the inactive pool tops out at 5,528.5, and dead storage lies below 5,506. The gauge panel on this page covers only recent years: its high of 5,608.02 feet came in 2023, essentially full, and its low of 5,554.78 feet came in 2025, about 53 feet down. Division of Wildlife Resources biologists recorded the swing from the other side, with the water near 5,585 feet during their 2022 surveys and near 5,607 in 2023.
The name comes from three big sandstone outcrops that rise out of the water like a fleet of ships, their red bows and decks in the Chinle Formation and their upper turrets in Nugget Sandstone. The surrounding land became Red Fleet State Park in 1988, and the park's best known feature is a dinosaur trackway: hundreds of three toed tracks, roughly 200 million years old and 3 to 17 inches long, pressed into Nugget Sandstone across the water from the boat ramp. You reach them on a strenuous three mile round trip hike or by boat or canoe, and they show up best in early morning or late afternoon light. The fishery was reset in October 2015, when the Division of Wildlife Resources treated the reservoir with rotenone to remove fish that threatened endangered native fish downstream in the Green River, then restocked it with cutthroat trout, wiper, yellow perch, black crappie, sterile walleye and mountain whitefish.
Red Fleet Reservoir — frequently asked
What is Red Fleet Reservoir's full pool elevation?
Reclamation puts the spillway crest and top of the joint use pool at 5,608.2 feet, with 521 surface acres and about 26,000 acre-feet stored at that level. The dam crest is at 5,627 feet, and the designed maximum water surface is 5,621 feet, at which the spillway would pass about 5,510 cubic feet per second. Water above 5,608.2 runs over the spillway into Big Brush Creek.
Why is Red Fleet Reservoir so low?
Red Fleet sits on a creek draining only 83 square miles, and its water is spoken for: the Jensen Unit delivers about 18,000 acre-feet a year for municipal and industrial use plus 4,600 for irrigation. When runoff is short the reservoir cannot refill what is drawn out. The gauge low on this page, 5,554.78 feet in 2025, was about 53 feet below full, and a Division of Wildlife Resources report in March 2026 put the reservoir at 35 percent of capacity and still very low.
What is the highest level Red Fleet has reached recently?
The gauge panel on this page, which covers only recent years, shows a high of 5,608.02 feet in 2023, within a few inches of the 5,608.2 foot spillway crest. Division of Wildlife Resources biologists noted the same year's high water in their survey report, recording the reservoir near 5,607 feet in 2023 compared with about 5,585 feet in 2022, a change big enough to flood the shoreline sites they sample.
Who operates Red Fleet Dam?
The Bureau of Reclamation built and owns the dam, which went up between 1977 and 1980 as part of the Central Utah Project's Jensen Unit, authorized by the Colorado River Storage Project Act of 1956. Jensen Unit facilities were transferred to the Uintah Water Conservancy District on 1 October 1988, and the district handles daily operation and maintenance under Reclamation oversight and repays about $30.5 million in construction costs. Utah State Parks runs the boat ramp, campground and picnic areas.
Where are the dinosaur tracks at Red Fleet?
The trackway is on the shore across the reservoir from the boat ramp. It holds hundreds of tracks left by three toed dinosaurs that walked on two legs about 200 million years ago, preserved in Nugget Sandstone and ranging from 3 to 17 inches. The trailhead is about 2.3 miles from Highway 191, and the round trip hike is three strenuous miles. Many visitors cross by boat or canoe instead. Removing or disturbing rock there is prohibited.
What fish are in Red Fleet Reservoir?
Since the 2015 rotenone treatment and restocking, Division of Wildlife Resources surveys have found wiper, yellow perch, black crappie, largemouth bass, bluegill, rainbow and tiger trout, mountain whitefish, walleye and native flannelmouth sucker. In 2023 biologists rated crappie and bass as quality fishing and found wiper in the poorest condition yet recorded, with two thirds of stomachs empty, and recommended adding a forage fish such as gizzard shad. Stocking plans listed crappie, tiger trout, triploid walleye and wiper.
Is there a fish consumption advisory at Red Fleet Reservoir?
Yes. Utah's fish advisory list includes Red Fleet Reservoir for mercury. Adults are advised to limit largemouth bass to 7 servings a month, walleye over 12 inches to 7 servings a month, and walleye under 12 inches to 11 servings a month. The advisory concerns mercury only; the selenium advisory in Uintah County applies to the lower Ashley Creek drainage and Stewart Lake, not Red Fleet.
Other lakes near Red Fleet Reservoir
- Rockport ReservoirUT
- Lake PowellUT/AZ
- Starvation ReservoirUT
- Pineview ReservoirUT
- East Canyon ReservoirUT
- Lost Creek ReservoirUT
See current levels for all 10 Utah lakes and reservoirs →
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