Vega State Park in western Colorado centers on Vega Reservoir, a high-elevation lake created when irrigation demand in Plateau Valley led the Bureau of Reclamation to build Vega Dam and Reservoir from 1957 to 1962. Recreational facilities around the reservoir passed to the state in 1967, establishing the park as a year-round destination for fishing, boating, camping, hiking, and winter sports. Its meadows, wetlands, and aspen forest support varied wildlife, while the valley also preserves deeper natural and human history, from ancient seas and occasional fossils to the passage of Spanish missionaries, Ute displacement, and the rise and decline of an 1880s farming settlement.