42 
SAN LUIS VALLEY. 
the western descent having proved so difficult, no further examination of it was made. Our 
guide informs us that to the west of our trail, along the banks of the Rio del Norte io where it 
enters a plain through a canon from the San Juan mountains, bearing west from our present 
camp, and thence above on its tributaries, the valley of San Luis, which in this part is 
known to many as the valley of San Juan, is rich and fertile, covered with extensive meadows 
of grass, and abounding in game and wild horses. The narrow line of timber, thirty-five miles 
distant upon the Rio del Norte, is plainly seen from our trail; but it is represented to be difficult 
to cross the valley with wagons, on account of the marshes along the river and the miry banks 
of the sunken creeks, and we have therefore followed the base of the Sierra Blanca, which 
extends from the Sangre de Cristo to Gunnison’s Pass. To the north of this range, but partially 
connected with it, a broken range of mountains extends towards the Arkansas river, called the 
Sierra Mojada or Wet mountain, from the constant rains which fall upon it. The Indian name of 
the range on the west of the San Luis valley is Sahwatch, but it is more generally known by 
the Spanish name of San Juan. The San Luis valley is from 40 to 70 miles in width, and still 
more in length, and so level that trees are seen in any direction, growing on the streams, as far 
as the eye can discern them. 
