Out-of-Door Playgrounds of the San 
Isabel National Forest 
EYOND the rolling country lying to the west of Trinidad, 
B Walsenburg, and Pueblo, and east of the broad reaches of the 
great San Luis Valley of southern Colorado, in the San Isabel 
National Forest, there rises abruptly a high, sharp line of mountains, 
dark with forests along their base and white along their summits 
with everlasting snow. By day they gleam in dazzling white; by 
night they seem but the ghosts of mountains; and in the evening, 
when the light on the high peaks turns to rose and violet before it 
dies, they are beautiful beyond description. So thought, at least, 
the old Spanish friars, who reverently named them Sangre de Cristo 
Mountains. To the east of this range lies the lovely Wet Mountain 
Valley, and bordering that, the rolling hills of the Wet Mountains. 
Southward from both of these the Las Animas division of the Forest 
occupies the high country between the Culebra Range and the Span- 
ish Peaks, landmarks for the returning westerner. 
The Sangre de Cristo is a sharp, saw-tooth range, containing 
numerous peaks above 14,000 feet. Sierra Blanca (14,390 feet) is 
the third highest peak in the State. The Las Animas division is 
similarly high and rugged, but the Wet Mountain division is much 
lower and more gentle in topography. 
In these mountain regions there is much to entice the dweller 
in the hot lowland cities. Numerous clear, cold streams that have 
their rise high up amid the peaks and canyons and lovely mountain 
lakes, mirroring the passing clouds and the forests on their shores, 
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