If you’re eager to wet a line in Antero Reservoir or use the Cheesman Lake trail to access the upper end of Cheesman Canyon, you’ll want to pay close attention to various developments next spring.
Denver Water, which controls access to both reservoirs, hopes for a sufficient runoff to fill Antero, which drained in 2002 and is about one-third full.
The Cheesman situation seems more certain. Denver Water plans to open the parking lot that accesses the Gill Trail to the South Platte River immediately below the Cheesman Dam sometime in late winter or early spring.
The water agency’s property around the lake was severely damaged in the 2002 Hayman fire, and the area since has been closed to the public.
The Antero scenario depends upon enough snowmelt on the South Fork of the South Platte to fill the relatively shallow impoundment sufficiently to sustain trout.
Should winter snow projections indicate this likelihood, the Colorado Division of Wildlife might begin a stocking procedure at ice-out.
Antero has a capacity of 20,015 acre feet. The water level stands at 6,118 acre feet.
