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Show SEGMENT 2: From the New Mexico-Colorado Boundary to Montrose, Colorado. Researcher Robert W. Delaney and Associate Robert McDaniel conducted the basic research on this segment. The Delaney-McDaniel report is found in RESEARCH REPORT 8. The August abandoned campsite 5 Juan bank of the San Rai I road D.&R.G.W. generally agreed is River at or I ine. of the to have Carracas, near The camp That same a was been deserted barely on the north station on inside the the boundary present state of Colorado. evening Father Escalante rode horseback eastward upstream to the confluence of the San Juan and Navajo rivers and estimated the distance at three leagues from camp, nearly due east "as the fl ies." crow leads to the suggestion The actual possibi I distance ity This is about six mi les. that the expedition reached the San Juan-farther downstream to the west. However, distances and landmarks for the fol lowing few days of August tend to measure quite accurately from the Carracas site. Escalante, weary after a long day in the saddle, probably overestimated the distance to the mouth of the Navajo. day's A short meadowland by along and march on the north August bank of Lake Navajo most of the year, was located about Arboles--approximately one mi Ie west of Sandoval Canyon. the waters of east of On to the 6 took the company westward through the The campsite, now covered Juan. the San August north. 7 the expedition The trai I left the San skirted the Juan present site Val four mi les ley, keeping of Arboles on the slopes and crossed the Piedra River about a mi Ie above its confluence with the San Juan, then passed north of Allison and Tiffany to the Las Pinas River which the company forded just south of present day Ignacio. During the day they caught their first of the view La Plata Mountains, along the southern edge of which they good intended to travel. After leaving the Las Pinas camp the fol lowing day, August 8, the padres continued in a northwesterly direction and forded the Florida River at about the place where Colorado Highway 172 bridges that stream. From the crossing of the Florida the trai I continued generally northwestward, <somewhat south of Highway 172) to reach and ford the Animas River. The campsite was almost due west of the junction of U.S. Highways 550 and 160- on the west side of the river--some four mi les south of Durango's city' limits. August difficult. south of the 9 was a relatively The direction present site was of short day's hike. Some of the terrain west-northwest to the La Plata River Hesperus. was just Colorado State Highway 160 paral leis the course of the trai I most of the way between Hesperus and the East Mancos River. The expedition reached that stream just upstream from its confluence with the West Mancos--the two branches form the Mancos River. The camp was some three miles northeast of the present town of Mancos. The Spanish party -6- remained there two days, |
