AbstractHydrologic fluxes in mountainous watersheds are particularly important as these areas often provide a significant source of freshwater for more arid surrounding lowlands. The state of Colorado in the United States comprises a principal snow catchment area, with all major headwater river basins in Colorado providing substantial water flows to surrounding western and midwestern states. The ability to represent and quantify hydrologic processes controlling the generation and movement of water in headwater basins of Colorado therefore has significant implications for effective management of water resources in the western United States under varying climatic and land-use conditions. In the research reported in this paper, hydrologic modeling was applied to four snow-dominated, mountainous basins of Colorado [i.e., the river basins of (1) Cache la Poudre, (2) Gunnison, (3) San Juan, and (4) Yampa] to evaluate the relevance of specific hydrologic components (i.e., evapotranspiration, snow processes, grou...