El Vado Dam impounds the Rio Chama in the U.S. state of New Mexico, about 105 miles (169 km) north-northwest of New Mexico's largest city, Albuquerque and about 80 miles (130 km) northwest of the capital city of Santa Fe.

The earth-filled structure forms El Vado Lake, a storage reservoir for the Middle Rio Grande Project, and has been designated as a New Mexico Historic Civil Engineering Landmark by the American Society of Civil Engineers.

[3] Impoundment of the reservoir, which filled by 1936, inundated El Vado, the largest town of Rio Arriba County.

The capacity of the El Vado outlet works was increased to pass 6,600 cubic feet (190 m3) per second.

[10] Owned by the United States Bureau of Reclamation, the El Vado dam serves for storage and flood-control purposes.