The North Fork South Platte River is a tributary of the South Platte River

South Platte River

The South Platte River is one of the two principal tributaries of the Platte River and itself a major river of the American Midwest and the American Southwest/Mountain West, located in the U.S. states of Colorado and Nebraska...

, approximately 50 miles (80 km) long, in central Colorado

Colorado

Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...

 in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. The river is located near the headwaters of the South Platte in the Rocky Mountains

Rocky Mountains

The Rocky Mountains are a major mountain range in western North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch more than from the northernmost part of British Columbia, in western Canada, to New Mexico, in the southwestern United States...

 southwest of Denver

Denver, Colorado

The City and County of Denver is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Denver is a consolidated city-county, located in the South Platte River Valley on the western edge of the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains...

, draining a rugged area of the Front Range

Front Range

The Front Range is a mountain range of the Southern Rocky Mountains of North America located in the north-central portion of the U.S. State of Colorado and southeastern portion of the U.S. State of Wyoming. It is the first mountain range encountered moving west along the 40th parallel north across...

 just south of the basin of Clear Creek

Clear Creek (Colorado)

Clear Creek is a tributary of the South Platte River, approximately long, in north central Colorado in the United States. The creek flows through Clear Creek Canyon in the Rocky Mountains directly west of Denver, descending through a long gorge to emerge on the Colorado Eastern Plains where it...

.

It rises at the continental divide

Continental divide

A continental divide is a drainage divide on a continent such that the drainage basin on one side of the divide feeds into one ocean or sea, and the basin on the other side either feeds into a different ocean or sea, or else is endorheic, not connected to the open sea...

 near Webster Pass

Webster Pass

Webster Pass is a snow pass in central Bear Peninsula located at the divide between Brush Glacier and Holt Glacier, on Walgreen Coast, Marie Byrd Land. Mapped by United States Geological Survey from U.S. Navy aerial photographs taken 1966. Named by Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names in 1977...

 in northwestern Park County

Park County, Colorado

Park County is the 17th most extensive of the 64 counties of the State of Colorado of the United States. The county was named after the large geographic region known as South Park, which was named by early fur traders and trappers in the area. The geographic center of the State of Colorado is...

, flows through a canyon to the southeast, and is joined by Geneva Creek

Geneva Creek (Colorado)

Geneva Creek is a short tributary of the North Fork South Platte River, approximately long, in central Colorado in the United States. It drains part of the Rocky Mountains southwest of Denver in northern Park County. It rises at the continental divide west of Mount Bierstadt and descends through a...

 at the town of Grant

Grant, Colorado

Grant is an unincorporated town and a U.S. Post Office in Park County, Colorado, United States. The community is located in foothills of the Front Range in the Platte Canyon, in the upper valley of the North Fork South Platte River, approximately 6 miles east of Kenosha Pass. It sits along U.S....

. Downstream from Grant it is followed by U.S. Highway 285 until Bailey

Bailey, Colorado

Bailey is an unincorporated town and U.S. Post Office in northeastern Park County, Colorado, United States.The ZIP Code of the Bailey Post Office is 80421. Bailey is in the Mountain Time Zone. The community is located along U.S...

, where it cuts through a remote section of the foothills. It joins the South Platte from the west at the lower end of the Platte Canyon

Platte Canyon

The Platte Canyon is a deep, narrow, scenic gorge on the South Platte River in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. The canyon is southwest of Denver on the border between Jefferson and Douglas counties. The canyon is at the entrance to the mountains, where the South Platte emerges through the Rampart...

 in the mountains approximately 20 miles (32 km) southwest of Denver. The lower part of the river is flanked by several small mountain communities, including Buffalo Creek

Buffalo Creek, Colorado

Buffalo Creek is an unincorporated town and U.S. Post Office in Jefferson County, Colorado, United States. The ZIP Code of the Buffalo Creek Post Office is 80425.-History:The town of Buffalo Creek was established about 1877 along the stream of the same name...

 and Foxton

Foxton, Colorado

Foxton is an unincorporated town in Jefferson County, Colorado, United States. The U.S. Post Office at Conifer now serves Foxton postal addresses....

, in the extended geographic region of the Platte Canyon. The basin of the river is separated from South Park

South Park (Colorado basin)

South Park is a high intermontane grassland basin, approximately 10,000 ft in elevation, in the Rocky Mountains of central Colorado. It encompasses approximately 1,000 square miles around the headwaters of the South Platte River in Park County approximately 60 mi southwest of Denver...

 to the south by Kenosha Pass

Kenosha Pass

Kenosha Pass, elevation , is a high mountain pass located in the Rocky Mountains of central Colorado in the United States.The pass is located in the Rocky Mountains southwest of Denver, Colorado, just northeast of the town of Fairplay, Colorado...

. The lower 10 miles (16 km) of the river form part of the boundary between Jefferson

Jefferson County, Colorado

Jefferson County , whose slogan is the "Gateway to the Rocky Mountains", is the fourth most populous of the 64 counties of the State of Colorado of the United States. Located along the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains, Jefferson County is adjacent to the west side of the state capital, Denver....

 and Douglas

Douglas County, Colorado

Douglas County is the eighth most populous of the 64 counties of the state of Colorado, in the United States. The county is located midway between Colorado's two largest cities: Denver and Colorado Springs...

counties.