Spring Creek Pass, elevation , is a
mountain pass
A mountain pass is a navigable route through a mountain range or over a ridge. Since many of the world's mountain ranges have presented formidable barriers to travel, passes have played a key role in trade, war, and both Human migration, human a ...
on the
Continental Divide
A continental divide is a drainage divide on a continent such that the drainage basin on one side of the divide feeds into one ocean or sea, and the basin on the other side either feeds into a different ocean or sea, or else is endorheic, not ...
in the
San Juan Mountains
The San Juan Mountains is a high and rugged mountain range in the Rocky Mountains in southwestern Colorado and northwestern New Mexico. The area is highly mineralized (the Colorado Mineral Belt) and figured in the gold and silver mining industry ...
of
Colorado
Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...
. The pass is traversed by
State Highway 149, and the
Continental Divide Trail
The Continental Divide National Scenic Trail (in short Continental Divide Trail (CDT)) is a United States National Scenic Trail with a length measured by the Continental Divide Trail Coalition of between the U.S. border with Chihuahua, Mexico a ...
and
Colorado Trail
The Colorado Trail is a long-distance trail running for from the mouth of Waterton Canyon southwest of Denver to Durango in Colorado, United States. Its highest point is above sea level, and most of the trail is above . Despite its high elevat ...
follow the divide and cross the highway here. Somewhat unusually for a pass on the Continental Divide, it is not the highest point on the highway in the vicinity; heading north from the pass, the road climbs over the considerably higher
Slumgullion Summit before descending toward
Lake City.
Water Diversion
Around 1910, the Tabor Ditch was constructed to
divert water from tributaries of Cebolla Creek in the
Gunnison River
The Gunnison River is located in western Colorado, United States and is one of the largest tributaries of the Colorado River.
Description
The river flows east to west and has a drainage area of according to the USGS. The drainage basin of ...
basin over the
continental divide
A continental divide is a drainage divide on a continent such that the drainage basin on one side of the divide feeds into one ocean or sea, and the basin on the other side either feeds into a different ocean or sea, or else is endorheic, not ...
at Spring Creek Pass into Big Spring Creek in the
Rio Grande
The Rio Grande ( and ), known in Mexico as the Río Bravo del Norte or simply the Río Bravo, is one of the principal rivers (along with the Colorado River) in the southwestern United States and in northern Mexico.
The length of the Rio G ...
basin. This 0.5 mile (0.8 km) ditch was originally constructed to divert water for irrigation, but it is now owned by the
Colorado Parks and Wildlife
Colorado Parks and Wildlife manages the state parks system and the wildlife of the U.S. state of Colorado. , the division managed the 42 state parks and 307 wildlife areas of Colorado.
, the Colorado Natural Areas Program had 93 designated si ...
. The ditch can carry approximately 30 cubic feet per second (0.85 m
3/s), and in an average year, it diverts about 1400 acre-feet (1.7 million m
3).
[John N. Winchester]
A Historical View: Transmountain Development in Colorado
2000; retrieved 2018-03-09.
See also
*
Colorado mountain passes
This is a list of some important mountain passes in the Rocky Mountains of the U.S. State of Colorado.
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Mountain passes and highway summits traversed by improved roads
Mountain summit highways
Mountain passes traversed by unimproved ...
References
Mountain passes of Colorado
Landforms of Hinsdale County, Colorado
San Juan Mountains (Colorado)
Transportation in Hinsdale County, Colorado
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