Colorado

River in Texas, USA, flowing into the Gulf of Mexico; length 1,450 km/900 mi. It rises in Dawson County, in the Llano Estacado, some 100 km/60 mi south of Lubbock, in intermittent streams, and flows generally southeast for its entire journey across central Texas to the Gulf of Mexico. In west-central Texas it passes through Colorado City (population (2000) 4,300) and Ballinger; it then cuts through the state's central hills to Austin, at the Balcones Escarpment, from which it drops across the Coastal Plain, past Bay City, to Matagorda Bay, on the Gulf.

Its chief tributaries are the Concho, San Saba, Llano, and Pedernales rivers. Dams in the Hill Country have created Buchanan and other lakes, in the Highland Lakes area northwest of Austin, and a three-part (Upper, Central, Lower) Colorado River Authority manages a series of flood-control and power developments along the river and its tributaries. A delta formed by the river extends across Matagorda Bay.