1770 REPORT OF THE CHIEF OF ENGINEERS. 



far matured as those at and about Pagosa and other points of a higher elevation and 

 farther east than here. 



RIO DE LOS PINOS. 



The Rio de los Pinos (River of the Pines) received during last summer a remarkable 

 emigration. Its upper waters are in the terrible quartzite region, and the ascent is 

 fraught with danger to man and beast. One of the party was seriously injured and 

 narrowly escaped with his life in an accident caused by his mule slipping and losing 

 his foothold on the bare quartzite over which the trail passed. The large forests about 

 the central part of the river were the origin of its name. Its west fork, or the Valle- 

 cito (the Stream of Small Valleys), rises in the same wonderful geological formation. 

 It contains a large and handsome park near its month, and several tiny ones above. 

 These valleys both contain magnificent pasturage, are 7,500 to 7,700 feet in altitude, 

 and, with the contrast of the brilliant red of the rocky hills inclosing them and the 

 long lines of level green below, are very beautiful. Beyond and above rise lofty peaks 

 of quartzite towering to 4,000 to 5,000 feet, with snow-covered tops, magnificent, grand, 

 and apparently inaccessible, as was afterward found to be almost the case. 



Below the forks of the river there is an area for several miles of 600 yards in width, 

 increasing to about 1,200 at their junction. Above, on the Pinos, are detached, park- 

 like areas, the first we met being 600 yards in width, 100 yards upon the west bank, 

 500 upon the east; the hills, from 800 to 1,500 feet, after circling and closing ab- 

 ruptly on the latter side upon the river, again receded. Again for nearly 4 miles 

 they once more recede upon the east, until we find another park of a mile in width. 

 This latter is the finest and handsomest area of the whole section ; the mountains 

 almost meet, and seemingly offer insuperable obstacles to a direct ascent of the river. 

 A trail here passes to the right and around the mountains, reaching the Los Pinos 

 miles above at its headwaters ; it is traveled with much less difficulty than that through 

 the canon. 



Beyond this there is a canon with a width of 400 yards extending for about 4 

 miles, Avhen the mountains close to the width of the stream alone. There are no loca- 

 tions in any of these parks, above which no arable land occurs. 



On the Vallecito there is no area above the large park near its mouth at all worthy 

 of mention. 



This river, it may be noted, is remarkable in that during the last 13 miles of its 

 course no tributary whatever, save that from two small springs not worthy of note, is 

 received from the mountains to the east, numbers of streams coming from the west. 

 In other words, the mountain slopes of the divide which separates it from the Los 

 Pinos are almost vertical, being terribly steep upon their western sides, while upon 

 the other they are more gradual to the Pinos. 



The general shape of this park or valley is of a rude diamond. In the upper part 

 fully a mile is taken up by a large colony of beaver-dams, in whose waters are merged 

 the entire river. The largest of these covers nearly 4 acres of water-surface, grassy 

 slopes fringed by pine forest being upon either side. From the large beaver-dams to 

 the south the valley rapidly widens, increasing in about 4 miles from 600 to 2,500 

 yards in width. From the beaver-dam to the southern end of the ridge in which the 

 divide of the Los Pinos watershed terminates there is an area in the Vallecito Valley 

 of 2,600 acres, including a small loss by beaver-dams, of which 1,350 is magnificent 

 pasturage, the balance of the bottom from the mountain edges being pine-timbered ; 

 from this to the junction of the two rivers the area, taking the width of both valleys, 

 of which the Vallecito is the wider, is 400 acres more, of which 350 is clear and open 

 grazing, the remaining 50 of the valley being timbered. Throughout the park the 

 pasturage is everyAvhere good ; all of this is from 7,600 to 7,700 feet in altitude. We 

 have in the aggregate a total area of Vallecito land alone of nearly 3,000 acres, about 

 half of which is pasturage of the finest kind. 



Below the junction of the forks and down the river to where the valley narrows, 

 there is an area, lying mainly on the east bank, of 1,400 acres in the bottom, over 

 three-fourths of which is open grass-land ; the balance is covered with pine timber, 

 extending to the base of the mountains bordering the valley and up its sides. 



The bordering hills are 800 feet high on the left bank, some 200 less on the right, 

 being lower to the south. Not a single cabin was built or location for agricultural 

 purposes made anywhere in this valley, nor were any herds of stock seen above the 

 Florida trail. 



Shortly below the southern end of the valley last mentioned the trail from the Rio 

 Florida reaches the Pinos and is merged in that along the river. The trail descending 

 the Los Pinos here crosses, and we follow down upon the east or left bank. 



The bottom on this side is more open, the hills closing upon the other; at some points 

 they are here nearly half a mile distant, closing in to the river toward the south. 

 From this point to the bridge at the county road, about 8 miles below, thence down to 

 the line of the Indian reserve, a little over 4 miles, emigrants have flocked to the east- 

 ern bank and located upon all the available land along the river. Above the bridge 



