Topography
The study area encompasses the upland watersheds of four major rivers with an elevation range from 6,900 feet up to the peak of Mount Sneffels at 14,150 feet. The character of these drainages is most diverse. In some areas there are rolling mesas of prairie grasslands above the canyons and valleys.
The San Miguel valley falls west and north out of the Telluride area, where it is a half-mile wide and composed of pasture and willow thickets, and becomes narrowed by the cliffs of red sandstone. It widens slightly in several places along it’s course.
Leopard Creek canyon is fairly narrow, though less so than the San Miguel Canyon. As it rises up to Dallas divide to the east, the pinion and juniper give way to aspen and spruce and the valley widens. The other side of Dallas divide is a vista of pinion, juniper, oak brush and pastureland. Cottonwoods are along west Dallas creek. The valley here is wide and there is little separation between the Dallas creek and Pleasant valley drainages. Rising to the north, the escarpment of Loghill Mesa towers 1,000 feet over the valley floor. To the south. the land gently rises to the base of the mountains and then ascends steeply to the peak of Mount Sneffels. Dallas creek drains into the Uncompahgre at the Town of Ridgway.
The Uncompahgre valley, at up to a mile wide, is comparatively open and flat at the northern portion of the study area and patterned by the divisions of hay fields and pastures. The walls of the valley are covered in pinion, juniper, and oak and fairly steep. The valley narrows as it rises to the south approaching Ouray and becomes very narrow with sheer walls similar to the San Miguel valley.