1804 REPORT OF THE CHIEF OF ENGINEERS. 



head of its deep canon. The valley is in places much trampled by cattle, rendering 

 the trail at a few points difficult to follow. It traverses a dry but magnificent grazing 

 section, and, with the Piedra trail, is the short route from the Nutria to the Rio Grande, 

 via Weeminuche Pass. Cattle, we are informed, have been driven by this trail to the 

 valley of the Rio Grande. 



THE RIO PIEDRA. 



The trails in the upper part of this river have already been mentioned. In its lower 

 part, from a short distance below the junction of its various forks, it is impassable on 

 account of the terrible canon walls that confine it upon both sides. 



Upon its western side a sort of trail passes to its upper waters. It is more properly 

 a series of climbs from rock to rock of the sandstone mesas at the risk of life and 

 limb, it being impossible to ride an animal over any portion of it long enough to de- 

 serve mention. The nature of the region may be judged of when it is stated that the 

 time occupied in passing from the road to the open valleys and plateaus above, a dis- 

 tance of 20 miles, was six days. From near the Piedra a shorter route exists to Tierra 

 Amarilla than the wagon-road via Pagosa. From the Rio Nutria east of the Piedra 

 Parada, or Standing Stone, a remarkable ckinmey-like mass of rock rising upright 

 from its base, there passes a trail to the southeast, crossing the San Juan below the 

 mouth of the Blanco and continuing on to the Navajo, crossing the country road en route. 

 Thance it is over part of a trail already described. Like a number of other trails 

 designated this is not upon the map, and avoiding Pagosa entirely is valuable solely 

 as a cut-off to the Tierra AmarOla or Chama section from the Rio Nutria, the Piedra, 

 and beyond. 



THE RIO LOS PLNOS AND THE VALLECITO. 



The lower parts of these rivers are easily traversed, but the regions of the heads thereof 

 are to be avoided, unless the occurrence of dangerous accidents be of trifling import. 



Up the main stream a trail passes all the way, mainly on the left bank, to the 

 Weeminuche Pass; this is, without exaggeration, a horrible trail; necessarily so, in a 

 horrible region. Some parties of prospectors essaying to reach the " Needles" at its 

 head went along a short distance, but abandoned the attempt. We pushed ahead, and 

 got through with one of the party liors du combat, a mule and his rider narrowly escap- 

 ing death by falling from the slippery rock over which passed the trail. 



No description can convey any idea of the ruggedness of the great crags of these 

 mountains. Let us presume we are looking upon Manhattan Island as it appears from the 

 Jersey side. Instead of a single Trinity spire, multiply them till a hundred or more 

 rise up before us everywhere. Increase their size, raising up gigantic masses between, 

 sharp and craggy, like the edge of a huge, uneven saw, until the highest tops are a 

 mile above the bay. Imagine among them sharpened peaks, great precipices, vertical 

 cliffs, deep canons before you and behind you everywhere, all of slippery rock, with 

 treacherous footholds. In a faint degree such may be likened to the Quartzite Group, 

 more aptly known as the Needle Mountains. With a feeling akin to dread their pas- 

 sage may be attempted. To avoid the canon of the Los Pinos a trail just below its 

 southern end, in a magnificent wide valley, passes to the right and beyond the mount- 

 ains to the watershed of the Piedra, along which it continues for about 20 miles, 

 returning to the river about 3 miles below the incoming trail from the Weeminuche, 

 thus avoiding the region of greatest difficulty in the direct ascent of the river. 



The distance from the mouth of the Vallecito to the Weeminuche Pass is, by the 

 direct trail in the canon, about 30 miles — long and difficult ones ; by the detour to the 

 right 5 miles farther. 



On the Vallecito, or the West Fork of the Los Pinos, an old trail passes up the right 

 bank some six miles, and there is lost in the deep bog on the left bank. Upon the 

 left side a trail continues through the entire canon of the river, mainly upon that 

 bank. 



At the distance of about 16 miles from the mouth of the Vallecito a mineral spring be- 

 side the trail attracts the passer-by. This is better known as the ' ' Sheep-lick," numbers 

 of mountain-sheep beiug attracted thither by the iron constituents of the water. About 

 7 miles beyond is a low, flat area called " Deadwood," where the east and west forks of 

 the stream unite, the latter from the northwest, the former almost in the same line from 

 the southeast. The name is derived from the burned, charred pine-trees standing 

 thickly throughout the entire area, almost thrown in shadow by the huge crags tower- 

 ing fully 2,000 feet above. The trail follows the West Fork to its head iu Lake Colum- 

 bine, a crystal-green sheet of water 900 feet long by 300 wide, beautifully located in a 

 crateriforin space amid surrounding precipitous crags. The West Fork, from its mouth 

 to its origin in the lake, is about 8 miles in length, with a very rapid fall. Outline 

 sketches "to the north and east show the horrible nature of the mountain-summits in 

 this region, and the difficulties besetting one in making an ascent, which is at most 

 points an impossibility. 



In company with a few prospectors, this trail was opened early in September last, 

 the " Needles" being up to that time inaccessible ; since then, we are informed, hun- 



