Western Colorado or the Colorado Plateau, as locals call it, is beautiful, rocky and rugged. It is an arid region featuring high desert habitat with areas of scattered forests.
Within the Colorado Plateau about 20 miles south of Grand Junction, you’ll find Cheney Reservoir. Nestled between the Grand Mesa National Forest to the west and the 210,000-acre Dominguez-Escalante National Conservation Area to the east – a popular hunting area – the 50-acre lake is an oasis, of sorts.
It supplies life-sustaining water for a myriad of wildlife including elk, mule deer, bighorn sheep, mountain lions, black bears, turkey, waterfowl, upland birds, reptiles, songbirds and other species.
In 2024, the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation worked with a willing landowner and the Bureau of Land Management to acquire 480 acres. Thanks to the transaction, the entire reservoir is now conserved, protected and its surrounding ecosystem can be more effectively managed since it is under BLM management.
And given that it’s new public land, it’s accessible for everyone to hunt, fish and enjoy.
Creating and improving public access is a long-time focus of RMEF’s mission.
Since 1984, RMEF has opened or improved public access to nearly 1.6 million acres.
To view the sites and boundaries of RMEF land conservation and access projects, turn on the RMEF layer and use the code RMEF when you sign up for your onX subscription to receive a 20% discount.