Navajo Lake is a large reservoir on the upper San Juan River in northwestern New Mexico that extends into southern Colorado. Built behind Navajo Dam as part of the Colorado River Storage Project, it stores and releases water for irrigation and downstream use in Utah. Completed in 1962, the dam created a reservoir that also became part of state parklands in New Mexico and Colorado and is now known for fishing and recreation. Its creation also caused deep disruption, flooding a sacred Navajo site and forcing nearly 200 families from long-settled communities, leaving a legacy of both water development and lasting cultural and community loss.