Out-of-Door Playgrounds of 
The SanTIsabel National Fores? Page Twelve 
officers at the end of the first year, was five calves, and the animals 
showed every sign of thriving in their new mountain home. 
Grouse are fairly abundant in ail heavily timbered portions of 
the Forest, and in the Spanish Peaks region there is a flock of wild 
turkeys—the last within the State of this wonderful species which 
in the early days was one of the greatest game birds of the continent. 
Mountain Climbing 
No place in the west offers better facilities for mountain climbing 
than the rugged ranges of the San Isabel. The Sangre de Cristo 
Range presents a stretch of sky-piercing crags and mountain peaks 
unrivaled in Colorado. Among the most noted peaks which attract 
climbers are Old Baldy, 14,176 feet; Kit Carson, 14,100 feet; Hum- 
boldt, 14,041 feet; Gibson, 13,729 feet; Horn, 13,447 feet; Rito Alto, 
12,989 feet; Hunt, 12,446 feet; and Nipple, Twin Sisters, and Meth- 
odist Mountains, ranging from 11,000 to 12,500 feet in elevation. 
Sierra Blanca, 14,390 feet, at the southern end of the Sangre 
de Cristo Range, may be readily ascended by a good trail from 
Gardner in the Huerfano Valley or Blanco in the San Luis Valley, 
the round trip requiring three days. The Crestone Needles, 14,233 
feet, reached from the town of Crestone on the west side of the range, 
or from Westcliffe in the Wet Mountain Valley, are said never to 
have been scaled by mountain climbers. 
In the Las Animas division, the peaks of note are Culebra, 
14,069; Trinchera, 13,546 feet; and the East and West Spanish Peaks, 
12,708 and 13,626 feet, respectively. The first named peak is acces- 
sible from San Acacio on the Rio Grande Railroad, and the others 
from La Veta. In the Wet Mountain division, Greenhoin Peak, 
12,530 feet, is easily reached by a good trail from the town of Rye. 
The many peaks mentioned afford wonderful views of the moun- 
tains and plains of Colorado. From the Sangre de Cristo Range 
