6810.19 ft USBR project datum
level 10.3 ft below full pool — on the low side for late September
Reading comes straight from Bureau of Reclamation RISE (Reclamation RISE item 336) and updates live when you load this page.
Is El Vado Lake full?
Not quite — 10.3 ft below full pool as of September 22, 2026
How full is El Vado Lake? Not as a percentage: no storage figure comes through with this gauge reading, and a share of capacity worked out from the elevation alone would be a guess — how much water a reservoir holds at a given level is a curve only the operator's own capacity table knows. Feet from full pool is what the operator publishes, and it is the figure above.
El Vado Lake through the year
The band is the lake's own normal: where the level has run on each calendar day, 1980–2026. The summer drawdown — and how this year sits in it — shows up without reading a single number.
This year vs the years that matter
This year's trace against last year and the driest and wettest years on record — the drought-context question every lake regular asks.
- 2026 (this year)
- 2025 (last year)
- 1986 (wettest on record)
- 2023 (driest on record)
Full pool, datum, and the gauge
"Full pool" here means the conservation pool — the level the lake is designed to hold for water supply and recreation, not the flood-control space above it. The full explainer covers flood pool and dead pool too.
| Full pool | 6820.50 ft USBR project datum · per USBR San Juan-Chama Project full-pool reference |
|---|---|
| Conservation capacity | 25,678 acre-feet · per USBR San Juan-Chama Project capacity reference |
| Gauge | Reclamation RISE item 336 · Bureau of Reclamation RISE |
| Datum | USBR project datum — IMPORTANT: interim restricted pool during Safety of Dams construction - current max 6,820.5 ft / 25,678 ac-ft per USBR; design capacity ~200,000 ac-ft. Show restriction on the lake page. |
| Last verified | August 15, 2026 |
LakeDates reports lake level, not ramp status. Whether a given ramp or marina is usable at this level varies ramp by ramp — call the marina before you tow.
Quick answers
What is the lake level for El Vado Lake today?
El Vado Lake is at 6810.19 ft (USBR project datum) as of September 22, 2026 — 10.3 ft below full pool — on the low side for late September.
Is El Vado Lake full?
Not quite — at 6810.19 ft on September 22, 2026, El Vado Lake is 10.3 ft below its full pool of 6820.50 ft (USBR project datum).
How full is El Vado Lake?
Not as a percentage: no storage figure comes through with this gauge reading, and a share of capacity worked out from the elevation alone would be a guess — how much water a reservoir holds at a given level is a curve only the operator's own capacity table knows. Feet from full pool is what the operator publishes, and it is the figure above.
What is full pool for El Vado Lake?
Full pool (the conservation pool) for El Vado Lake is 6820.50 ft USBR project datum, per USBR San Juan-Chama Project full-pool reference. Levels above it use flood storage; levels below it are drawdown.