COOCHETOPA PASS. 
49 
obstruct it, without more labor than our limited time and the season of the year would warrant 
us in stopping to bestow upon them; and for the same reasons, no delay was made to examine 
it. The descent from our morning camp for the first 2.24 miles was (in whole numbers) 108 feet 
to the mile ; 6S feet per mile for the next 2.15 miles; 93 feet per mile for the following 2.05 miles, 
and 42 feet per mile for the succeeding 3.47 miles. 
Captain Gunnison says, “ the disposition of the mountains indicates that a line can be carried 
from the Coochetopa Pass southwesterly for some distance, passing behind the hills which divide 
the two southern valleys described above, and descending the most western one, securing a bet¬ 
ter grade than by following Pass creek.” This creek here inclines more to the north, and enters 
a small canon which sends out several side branches, and we were forced, in turning it, to cross 
a ridge to the N. N. E. to another branch of the Coochetopa creek. This ridge was rough and 
thickly covered with several varieties of artemisia—the sage so large and stiff that our animals 
were very reluctant to pass through it. Distance marched, 20 miles. 
September 5.—Following for three miles the narrow valley of the little creek on which we had 
encamped,.either side of which is lined with ledges of sandstone, through which numerous small 
rivulets have cut deep channels, it is joined by other valleys and spreads out a mile or two in 
width, and is, whether wide or narrow, covered with abundant grass. On our right we passed a 
very large, elevated, and remarkably round butte, standing quite detached from the mountain 
beyond it. Eight miles brought us to the Coochetopa creek, a fine, rapid little stream of twenty 
feet in width, which we were repeatedly obliged to cross and recross as the valley narrowed into 
gorges, and the stream impinged against its banks, while to avoid this at other points we passed 
over the artemisia bluffs. A few cotton-woods were scattered along the creek, but it was gener¬ 
ally lined only with willow bushes. At one point where we crossed it, ledges of coarse and 
crumbling feldspathic granite were observed ; but the rocks were generally sandstone, the light- 
colored argillaceous frequently over-lying the red ferruginous. Conglomerate rocks, but slightly 
cemented, also prevailed, and a few trap-rocks were seen. 
Captain Gunnison ascended a hill one mile W. N. W. from our morning camp, from which he 
had a fine view of the snow-clad range of mountains from which the Puncha and Coochetopa 
creeks descend. This mountain extends round by the north to northwest (magnetic,) where 
Grand river passe*s between it and the Elk mountains. From this point also he had a view of a 
snowy peak of the mountains at the head of the Arkansas river, distant in a course N. N. W. 
perhaps one hundred miles. From this hill he passed over the broken, barren and slightly 
elevated country along Pass creek, which receives many small canones from the west, over which 
it would require considerable labor to construct a road; “but it could be carried over this eleva¬ 
tion by rising below gradually for some distance.” Numerous elk-horns and buffalo-skulls lay 
scattered whitening on the hills, attesing the former range of the latter animals to these pastures, 
where the small variety of artemisia with a camomile odor, of which they are said to be more 
fond in winter than of any of the grasses, flourishes. Reaching the mouth of Pass creek, we 
encamped in a meadow of half a mile in diameter, having travelled 15.88 miles. Several times 
during the day we experienced very sensibly the sudden changes of temperature to which high 
altitude's in mountain regions are subject from a passing storm or a change of wind—our thick 
coats being at one moment necessary to our comfort, and the next oppressive. At this season of 
the year, rain-storms are here always accompanied by thunder and follow the mountain ranges, 
or gather about their summits, which act, by their icy coldness, as natural condensers. And while 
I am writing this evening it is snowing on the higher peaks in sight, and a slight shower of rain, 
accompanied by violent thunder, is falling on the lower ranges. At this camp our altitude was 
7,681 feet above the sea—a descent of 1,134 feet from the head of the canon on Pass creek, 
sixteen miles distant, or of seventy-one feet per mile. 
September 6.—Seven miles from camp the valley of the Coochetopa, which we experienced the 
same difficulty in following to-day as yesterday, and which was here and there lined with bluffs 
U 
