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Show 94 north, toward the GunniBon, describes, in its course from its head to the mouth of Henson Creek, a large and symmetrical reversed 8. Just below its first bend, and at its junction with a small stream from the north, is a narrow valley, probably 200 yards wide, called Burroughs Park, which extends, with few hummocks over its surface, for 2 miles down the stream, which then begins a rapid fall in a secondary cafion, from which it emerges near the point the stream changes its course from southeast to east. Here begins another narrow park- like area, covered with grass and, willows at thepoiDt Lake Creek is joined by Cottonwood Creek, which drains the eastern slopes of the Handle's Peak mass, and flows down in a gorge- like cation from the south of west. This park- like area extends with but one break nearly to the upper end of San Cristobal Lake, a beautiful sheet of water which entirely fills up the bottom of the Lake Fork Canon for 2 miles of its course at the western extremity of the Lake Fork Range. From the lake to the month of Hensen Creek the stream is in narrow secondary canons, and the surface of the bottom of the great canon is filled with rolling hillocks of dtbrti from the mountain- slopes. From this point, where there is a small tract- probably 300 acres- of level ground, to the point the wagon- road leaves the valley of the Gunnison, the stream is alternately bordered by small parks insignificant in extent and by abrupt walls of volcanic rocks of small height, the lower extremities of the slopes from the rims of its cafion cut through by the stream. Throughout this entire portion of its course the Lake Fork flows in a deep cation, tolerably wide at top, varying in depth from 5,000 to 3,000 feet, bordered ou the south aud east by the well- defined rim already described of the plateau north of Clear Creek, and by the Cannibal Plateau, and on the north and west by the Lake Fork group of peaks and the summit of the Uncompabgre plateau. The width of the cafion at top will average about 4 miles. The stream below the lake will average from 80 to 100 feet in width where its current is not unusually rapid, and from 2 to 4 feet in depth. Between the lake and the mouth of Hensen Creek it plunges in succession over two picturesque falls, the lower 80, the upper over 100 feet in vertical height. Hensen Creek is about one- half the volume of the Lake Fork, rises in a wide extent of rolling highlands north of the headwaters of the Auimas, and plunging rapidly downward, flows east, cutting the tremendous cafion in some places 5,000 feet in depth, bounded by abrupt walls, and very narrow at bottom, which separates the Lake Fork group from the plateau upon which stands the Uncompabgre Peak ; at its mouth, on the small flat just mentioned, Lake City, the most promisiug town of the San Juan country, is located. The mountains and plateaus bordering on the canons of the Lake Fork and Hensen Creek are from 12,000 to 14,000 feet in height, and the Lake Fork range is situated between the two gorges. Lake Fork range,- Of the groups of peaks and drainage axes radiating, from the Animas divide, the Lake Fork range is one of the few which conveys to the mind of the spectator the impression of veritable mountains. Here the mountain- forms are massive, with clearly- cut and distinct peaks, sharp and decided ridges, and slopes with beautiful and graceful horizontal contours. None of those pinnacles, those thin vertical walls with horizontal tops, those bluffs surmounted with rounded upper surfaces, those flat- topped benches and loug- sweeping rolling areas limited by bluffs and canon*, which are so often encountered in this region and convey the idea of eroded plateaus rather than of mountain- chains, are seen here. Though short, barely 12 miles from the head of the Lake Fork to its bend, there is no portion of the Sierra Madre of Colorado, even, which will compare with it in boldness or beauty. Brilliantly- painted peaks, red, orange, and greenish, with short bat full and rapid mountain- torrents fed by the perenuial snows of its summit, dashing, falliug, and foaming down its steep ravines, with its flanks bordered and limited b. T the canons and deeply- cut gorges of the Lake Fork and Hensen Creek, with no foothills softly shaded with verdure sloping down to gentle valleys, but everywhere sharp, decided, and bold. From any point of view not near the rims of the cations of the Lake Fork and Hensen Creek, the summits only of this ridge are seen, and seem to be cones rising from sweeping plateaus. On coming nearer, a strange, beautiful, and awe- inspiring sight bursts at once upon the view. A mountain- range, perfect in its details, magnificent in contour, sublime in height, beautiful and gorgeons in color, nearly covered in bas- relief, its base thousands of feet below the general level of the country, sunk oat of sight in narrow and seemingly bottomless cafions! The culminating point ot this range forms an appropriate central figure for this masterpiece of artistic nature, this magnificent basso- relievo, and in its symmetry, i » its coloring, in its freedom from anything not massive and appropriate, in its silvery setting of mighty snow- banks and rushing torrents, is unapproachable. The peak itself is pointed and well denned. From the summit a long ridge, sharp and graceful in outline, runs to the east of south for a mile or more, when the mountain falls away in rounded, sweeping curves, in steep slopes, to the bottom of the canon of the Lake Fork, nearly 4,000 feet below. |
