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Home › Waters › New Mexico › San Juan River
Tailwater · Four Corners · New Mexico

San Juan River Fishing Guides

Navajo Dam tailwater with dense populations of large rainbow trout in the quality waters, fished by drift boat and wading with tiny midge and baetis patterns in clear, cold water year-round.

A concrete dam releasing water into the river below it

Map of the San Juan River

15 numbered points: 2 access points, 1 campsite, 1 outfitter, 1 bridge, 8 parks and conservation areas, 1 hazard, 1 USGS gauge. Tap a marker for details. Reviewed Sep 7, 2026.

Printable version →
  • Access / boat ramp (2)
  • Campsite (1)
  • Outfitter / canoe rental (1)
  • Bridge crossing (1)
  • Park / conservation area (8)
  • Dam / hazard (1)
  • USGS gauge (1)
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors. Points are curated from OpenStreetMap and state agency sources; confirm access and hours before you go.

Print it. Bag it. Bring it.Phones die, screens crack, and most of this water has no signal. Print this map, fold it into a zip-top bag or dry bag with your license, and you have a backup your electronics can’t give you. Every marker is numbered so you can say exactly where you are.

Open the printable map
All 15 points on this map
#PointTypeLat, LonNotes
1Navajo Dam
Bureau of Reclamation · head of the tailwater		Dam / hazard36.80381, -107.61266The San Juan tailwater starts here. Everything below fishes on dam releases, so read the gauge before you commit to a float.
2Quality Waters parking, upper lot
Unnamed in OpenStreetMap · north bank		Access / boat ramp36.82315, -107.66017Large lot about 3.3 river miles below the dam, at the head of the braided water. Position from OSM; the sign at the lot names the reach.
3Quality Waters parking, lower lot
Unnamed in OpenStreetMap · north bank		Access / boat ramp36.81696, -107.67214Second big lot, about 4.3 river miles down, just above Cottonwood Campground.
4Cottonwood Campground
Navajo Lake State Park		Campsite36.81175, -107.67585Riverside campground on the north bank about 4.7 river miles below the dam - the usual base for a multi-day trip.
5Old Road River Tract
BLM Farmington Field Office		Park / conservation area36.80909, -107.70095Public river tract where the state park water ends; walk-in access on foot from the river road.
6San Juan Fishing Easement, upper
New Mexico Game & Fish easement		Park / conservation area36.80557, -107.69963Signed public easement across private ground. Stay inside the marked boundary.
7Navajo Dam Road (NM 511) bridge
Navajo Dam village		Bridge crossing36.80492, -107.70001First road crossing below the dam, about 6.6 river miles down. The village and its services sit on the north side.
8USGS 09355500 - San Juan River near Archuleta
USGS monitoring location		USGS gauge36.80189, -107.69864The release gauge for the tailwater. Check it the morning you launch.
9San Juan Fishing Easement, lower
New Mexico Game & Fish easement		Park / conservation area36.79787, -107.71131Second signed easement, about 7.7 river miles below the dam.
10Archuleta River Tract
BLM Farmington Field Office		Park / conservation area36.79811, -107.71322About 7.8 river miles down - the last of the close-in public ground.
11Majestic Enchantment Fly Fishing
Re-typed from OSM leisure=park		Outfitter / canoe rental36.75416, -107.76467Fly-fishing operation on the river road roughly 13 river miles below the dam.
12Hammond Tract Wildlife Area
New Mexico Department of Game & Fish		Park / conservation area36.74493, -107.80251Public wildlife area on the river, about 16 river miles down.
13Santa Rosa River Tract
BLM Farmington Field Office		Park / conservation area36.70552, -107.84759Public tract about 21 river miles below the dam.
14Blanco River Tract
BLM Farmington Field Office		Park / conservation area36.70079, -107.86756At Blanco, about 23 river miles down.
15Valdez River Tract
BLM Farmington Field Office		Park / conservation area36.70980, -107.91874Lowest of the mapped BLM tracts, about 26 river miles below the dam.

Guides on the San Juan River

Claimed profiles take booking requests. Unclaimed profiles are built from public records so the river is never empty; the guide can claim or remove one any time.

About the San Juan River

Navajo Dam tailwater with dense populations of large rainbow trout in the quality waters, fished by drift boat and wading with tiny midge and baetis patterns in clear, cold water year-round.

This water needs a real photo

The photo at the top of this page is not San Juan River.

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Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

3. Credit

We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

You can withdraw the license at any time by emailing hello@guidedfloats.com, or by using the contact form, and telling us which photo you mean. We will remove the photo from guidedfloats.com within 7 days of receiving your message and stop using it in anything new. Copies that are already outside our control — search-engine caches, social posts that have already gone out, printed material already produced — may take longer to disappear or may not be recallable, and we are not responsible for those.

5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

Fished this water? Add a photo

Reviewed by hand before it appears. Pick the water, not the spot — we never publish exact locations.

Never published. We use it only if we need to ask about the photo.

Posting to San Juan River.

JPG, PNG or WebP, up to 12 MB. We resize it and strip the location data out of the file.

The name shown under the photo. Leave blank to stay anonymous.

Reader photo license v1.0 — the short version:

  • You grant Guided Floats, LLC a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to publish, resize and crop your photo on guidedfloats.com and in GuidedFloats’ own social posts and apps. You keep the copyright and can use the photo anywhere else.
  • You confirm that you took the photo yourself, that publishing it does not infringe anyone else’s rights, and that anyone recognisable in it (or a parent or guardian, if they are under 18) is happy for it to appear here.
  • Credit is printed beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, using the credit name you give us. Leave it blank and we use your name; write “Anonymous” for no name. Your email address is never published.
  • Withdrawing is one email to hello@guidedfloats.com naming the photo. It comes off the site within 7 days.
Read the full license

Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

3. Credit

We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

You can withdraw the license at any time by emailing hello@guidedfloats.com, or by using the contact form, and telling us which photo you mean. We will remove the photo from guidedfloats.com within 7 days of receiving your message and stop using it in anything new. Copies that are already outside our control — search-engine caches, social posts that have already gone out, printed material already produced — may take longer to disappear or may not be recallable, and we are not responsible for those.

5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

Flow alert

Tell me when the San Juan River cfs

Now: 272 cfs, read 5:15 pm CDT, Sun Oct 18, 2026 (USGS 09355500, SAN JUAN RIVER NEAR ARCHULETA, NM).

We never use this address for anything else and never share it. See the privacy policy.

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Questions

What is the current flow on the San Juan River?

As of Oct 18, 5:15 pm, the USGS gauge SAN JUAN RIVER NEAR ARCHULETA, NM reads 272 cfs, the 8th percentile for this date, with water temperature 50.9 F. Conditions update every 15 minutes.

What species can you catch on the San Juan River?

Anglers target Brown Trout, Rainbow Trout on the San Juan River in New Mexico.

Are there fishing guides on the San Juan River?

GuidedFloats lists 5 guides and outfitters on the San Juan River. Claimed profiles accept booking requests; unclaimed profiles are built from public records and link to the business.

Where are the fishing regulations for the San Juan River?

Regulations change by season and section. Read the current rules on the New Mexico agency site: https://wildlife.dgf.nm.gov/fishing/