Lizard Head Pass
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Lizard Head Pass
Lizard Head Pass, elevation , is a mountain pass in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado, on the border between Dolores and San Miguel counties. It is also on the divide between the watersheds of the Dolores River The Dolores River is a tributary of the Colorado River, approximately long, in the U.S. states of Colorado and Utah. The river drains a rugged and arid region of the Colorado Plateau west of the San Juan Mountains. Its name derives from the Sp ... and San Miguel River. The pass lies in the saddle between Lizard Head and Sheep Mountain. History The pass is named for a prominent nearby peak that is said to look like the head of a lizard, the spire of Lizard Head. The pass is currently traversed by State Highway 145, about 12 miles south of the Telluride turnoff. It was also used by the historic Rio Grande Southern Railroad until 1952. Although the grades on both sides of the pass are mild for automobile traffic, this was a significant obstacle for the railr ...
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Colorado State Highway 145
State Highway 145 (SH 145) is a state highway in western Colorado. It runs for between U.S. Route 160 (US 160) in Cortez and SH 141 near Naturita. Route description The route begins in the south at its intersection with US 160 in the eastern portion of the city of Cortez. The route winds northward through the towns of Dolores, Rico, Sawpit, Placerville, Norwood, and Redvale before terminating at the junction with SH 141 about east of Naturita. Just north of its midpoint between Rico and Sawpit, the road also passes very near and provides access to the town of Telluride as well as Trout Lake. History On May 24, 2019, a large boulder fell onto a section of SH-145 near Dolores Dolores, Spanish for "pain; grief", most commonly refers to: * Our Lady of Sorrows or La Virgen María de los Dolores * Dolores (given name) Dolores may also refer to: Film * ''Dolores'' (2017 film), an American documentary by Peter Bratt * ' ... and covered the roadw ...
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Sheep Mountain (San Miguel And Dolores Counties, Colorado)
Sheep Mountain is a mountain summit located on the shared boundary of Dolores County with San Miguel County, in southwest Colorado, United States. It is situated three miles south of Trout Lake and two miles southeast of Lizard Head Pass, on land managed by San Juan National Forest and Uncompahgre National Forest. Sheep Mountain is part of the San Juan Mountains which are a subset of the Rocky Mountains, and is west of the Continental Divide. Topographic relief is significant as the southwest aspect rises above the Dolores River in approximately 2.5 miles. Neighbors include Golden Horn and Vermilion Peak to the east, and Lizard Head to the northwest. Sheep Mountain can be seen from the San Juan Skyway in the Lizard Head Pass and Trout Lake areas. The mountain's name, which has been officially adopted by the United States Board on Geographic Names, was in use in 1906 when Henry Gannett published it in ''A Gazetteer of Colorado''.Henry Gannett, ''Gazetteer of Colorado'', 1906 ...
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Landforms Of San Miguel County, Colorado
A landform is a natural or anthropogenic land feature on the solid surface of the Earth or other planetary body. Landforms together make up a given terrain, and their arrangement in the landscape is known as topography. Landforms include hills, mountains, canyons, and valleys, as well as shoreline features such as bays, peninsulas, and seas, including submerged features such as mid-ocean ridges, volcanoes, and the great ocean basins. Physical characteristics Landforms are categorized by characteristic physical attributes such as elevation, slope, orientation, stratification, rock exposure and soil type. Gross physical features or landforms include intuitive elements such as berms, mounds, hills, ridges, cliffs, valleys, rivers, peninsulas, volcanoes, and numerous other structural and size-scaled (e.g. ponds vs. lakes, hills vs. mountains) elements including various kinds of inland and oceanic waterbodies and sub-surface features. Mountains, hills, plateaux, and plains are t ...
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Landforms Of Dolores County, Colorado
A landform is a natural or anthropogenic land feature on the solid surface of the Earth or other planetary body. Landforms together make up a given terrain, and their arrangement in the landscape is known as topography. Landforms include hills, mountains, canyons, and valleys, as well as shoreline features such as bays, peninsulas, and seas, including submerged features such as mid-ocean ridges, volcanoes, and the great ocean basins. Physical characteristics Landforms are categorized by characteristic physical attributes such as elevation, slope, orientation, stratification, rock exposure and soil type. Gross physical features or landforms include intuitive elements such as berms, mounds, hills, ridges, cliffs, valleys, rivers, peninsulas, volcanoes, and numerous other structural and size-scaled (e.g. ponds vs. lakes, hills vs. mountains) elements including various kinds of inland and oceanic waterbodies and sub-surface features. Mountains, hills, plateaux, and plains are the fou ...
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Mountain Passes Of Colorado
This is a list of some important mountain passes in the Rocky Mountains of the U.S. State of Colorado. __TOC__ Mountain passes and highway summits traversed by improved roads Mountain summit highways Mountain passes traversed by unimproved roads Mountain passes traversed by foot trails See also *Colorado **Bibliography of Colorado **Index of Colorado-related articles **Outline of Colorado *Colorado statistical areas *Geography of Colorado *History of Colorado *List of counties in Colorado *List of places in Colorado **List of mountain peaks of Colorado **List of mountain ranges of Colorado **List of populated places in Colorado ***List of census-designated places in Colorado ***List of county seats in Colorado ***List of forts in Colorado ***List of ghost towns in Colorado ***List of historic places in Colorado ***List of municipalities in Colorado ***List of post offices in Colorado **List of rivers of Colorado *List of protected areas of Colorado This is a list o ...
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Galloping Goose (railcar)
Galloping Goose is the popular name given to a series of seven railcars (officially designated as "motors" by the railroad), built in the 1930s by the Rio Grande Southern Railroad (RGS) and operated until the end of service on the line in the early 1950s. They were derived from full-sized automobiles. Originally running steam locomotives on narrow gauge railways, the perpetually struggling RGS developed the first of the "geese" as a way to keep its contract to run mail into towns in the Rocky Mountains in Colorado. There was not enough passenger or cargo income to justify continuing the expensive steam train service at then-current levels, but it was believed that a downsized railway would return to profitability. The steam trains would transport heavy cargo and peak passenger loads, but motors would handle lighter loads. Motors were not only less expensive to operate, but were also significantly lighter, thus reducing impact on the rails and roadbeds. This cost saving meant ...
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Rio Grande Southern Railroad
The Rio Grande Southern Railroad (reporting mark RGS, also referred to as "The Southern") was a 3 ft (914 mm) narrow-gauge railroad which ran in the southwestern region of the US state of Colorado, from the towns of Durango to Ridgway, routed via Lizard Head Pass. Built by Russian immigrant and Colorado toll road builder Otto Mears, the RGS operated from 1891 through 1951 and was built with the intent to transport immense amounts of silver mineral traffic that were being produced by the mining communities of Rico and Telluride. On both ends of the railroad, there were interchanges with The Denver and Rio Grande Railroad (reporting mark D&RG(W), later known as the Denver and Rio Grande Western), which would ship the traffic the RGS hauled elsewhere like the San Juan Smelter in Durango. For the first few years of its life, the RGS would have fallen under the definition of a "Bonanza Railroad" which meant it was an instant success, quickly generating more than enough m ...
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Telluride, Colorado
Telluride is the county seat and most populous town of San Miguel County in the southwestern portion of the U.S. state of Colorado. The town is a former silver mining camp on the San Miguel River in the western San Juan Mountains. The first gold mining claim was made in the mountains above Telluride in 1875, and early settlement of what is now Telluride followed. The town was founded in 1878 as "Columbia", but due to confusion with a California town of the same name, was renamed Telluride in 1887 for the gold telluride minerals found in other parts of Colorado. These telluride minerals were never found near Telluride, but the area's mines for some years provided zinc, lead, copper, silver, and other gold ores. Telluride sits in a box canyon. Steep forested mountains and cliffs surround it, with Bridal Veil Falls situated at the canyon's head. Numerous weathered ruins of old mining operations dot the hillsides. A free gondola connects the town with its companion town, Mount ...
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State Highway 145 (Colorado)
State Highway 145 (SH 145) is a state highway in western Colorado. It runs for between U.S. Route 160 (US 160) in Cortez and SH 141 near Naturita. Route description The route begins in the south at its intersection with US 160 in the eastern portion of the city of Cortez. The route winds northward through the towns of Dolores, Rico, Sawpit, Placerville, Norwood, and Redvale before terminating at the junction with SH 141 about east of Naturita. Just north of its midpoint between Rico and Sawpit, the road also passes very near and provides access to the town of Telluride as well as Trout Lake. History On May 24, 2019, a large boulder fell onto a section of SH-145 near Dolores and covered the roadway. It was deemed too impractical to move or destroy, and the highway was instead realigned in July and the rock, named Memorial Rock, was dubbed a landmark. Major intersections References External links 145 145 may refer to: *145 (numbe ...
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Lizard Head
Lizard Head is a mountain summit in the San Miguel Mountains range of the Rocky Mountains of North America. The thirteener is located in the Lizard Head Wilderness, west by south ( bearing 258°) of the Town of Ophir, Colorado, United States, on the drainage divide separating San Juan National Forest and Dolores County from Uncompahgre National Forest and San Miguel County. Mountain Lizard Head lies just southeast of a group of three Colorado fourteeners, Mount Wilson, Wilson Peak, and El Diente Peak. Lizard Head is only the 556th highest peak in Colorado by most standard definitions, but its towering spire-like form makes it one of the most spectacular. Lizard Head lies northwest of Colorado State Highway 145 at Lizard Head Pass. Lizards Head Trail climbs west from Trout Lake along Black Face Mountain ridge and past the south face of Lizard Head toward Wilson Peak. The peak was used in a logo by the Rio Grande Southern Railroad. Geology The rock spire of Lizar ...
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Dolores County, Colorado
Dolores County is a county located in the U.S. state of Colorado. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the population was 2,326. The county seat is Dove Creek, Colorado, Dove Creek. History It is thought that the area has been the site of human habitation since at least 2500 B.C. Dolores County's western portions were densely populated between 900 and 1300 AD. Population estimates of as many as 10,000 inhabitants, with villages containing hundreds of rooms, have been discovered by archaeologists and other researchers. But this population was destroyed or migrated elsewhere, apparently following a drought and severe societal upheaval in the 14th century, and for centuries thereafter, both the western and eastern mountainous areas of the county were occupied mostly by nomads, including the Ute Indians, Ute and the Navajo people, Navajo Indians. Like much of southwestern Colorado, Dolores County is rich in Indian ruins and sites of the Anasazi. According to the Anasaz ...
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San Miguel River (Colorado)
The San Miguel River is a tributary of the Dolores River, approximately long, in southwestern Colorado in the United States. It rises in the San Juan Mountains southeast of Telluride and flows northwest, along the southern slope of the Uncompahgre Plateau, past the towns of Placerville and Nucla and joins the Dolores in western Montrose County approximately 15 miles (24 km) east of the state line with Utah. Geography and protected areas The San Miguel is more or less free-flowing; however, diversion dams dot the river and alter flows. In some parts it is however one of the few remaining naturally functioning rivers of the West. The San Miguel varies in gradient, from extremely steep in its upper reaches (forming a shallow, rocky, unnavigable stream) to more mellow in the lower sections ( of drop, which offers the whitewater boater a variety of runs all within the class II+--III range). All told, the San Miguel drops over from an alpine ecosystem to the desert. The ave ...
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