Out-of-Door Playgrounds of 
Page Nineteen The SanIsabel National Forest 
west from Walsenburg via La Veta Pass. On the eastern side of the 
Forest, the ‘“‘Colorado-Gulf Highway” to the Gulf of Mexico runs 
parallel to the Wet Mountains from Pueblo to Walsenburg. From 
Pueblo, Walsenburg, Salida, and Alamosa connections may be made 
with automobile highways running north, south, east, and west to all 
parts of the country. 
A Word of Caution 
Although the Forest divisions are comparatively narrow and 
located at high altitudes, there are few tracts of equal extent in the 
State upon which so many people and such large investments are so 
dependent. ‘This region is the oldest settled part of Colorado, people 
having come into this country in 1854. To-day approximately 
100,000 residents of cities, towns, and homesteads are more or less 
dependent on the Forest, principally for domestic and irrigation water, 
and for timber and summer range for live stock. The towns of Trinidad 
and Florence have cooperative agreements with the Secretary of 
Agriculture for the protection from fire of watersheds from which 
they draw their water supplies and for the regulation of the use of the 
land for forest purposes. 
To preserve the beauty of the mountains, as well as to make them 
of benefit to mankind, it is very necessary to exercise every precaution 
to prevent forest fires, which destroy the green trees, dry up the 
streams, drive away the game, and turn the beauty spots of nature 
into desolate wastes. A large percentage of the forest fires which 
occur each year are due to human agencies, and are, therefore, pre- 
ventable. By putting out your camp fires, using care with lighted 
matches and cigarette and cigar butts, and cleaning up your camp and 
picnic grounds before leaving them, you can do much toward safe- 
guarding the National Forests from the scourge of fire and making 
them a pleasant vacation land for those seeking rest and enjoyment. 
