Description
This publication describes the geologic setting and mineral resource potential of this 7.5-minute quadrangle located in Chaffee County, Colorado. Includes description of map units, structural geology, mineral resources, cross sections, oblique view as well as shapefiles with metadata. (1:24,000). Digital ZIP/PDF download. OF-04-04D
From the Author’s Notes:
The Buena Vista East 7.5-minute quadrangle is located along the Arkansas River in Chaffee County, central Colorado. The eastern part of the town of Buena Vista is in the northwest part of the quadrangle. U.S. Highways 285 and 24 are coincident over most of the quadrangle and transect the quadrangle northeast to southwest. Trout Creek Pass, on the same highway, is located about five miles northeast of the quadrangle. At Johnson Village near the Arkansas River in the map area, the highways split, US Highway 24 going north to Buena Vista and Leadville, U.S. Highway 285 going south to Nathrop and Alamosa.
The majority of the quadrangle is in the southern part of the Mosquito Range and is characterized by low, rolling, forested mountains. Limestone Ridge, in the northeastern part of the quadrangle, is the highest point in the map area at 10,132 ft above sea level. The Arkansas River flows south-southeast through the Arkansas Valley in the western one-quarter of the quadrangle. The lowest point in the map area is along the Arkansas River near Ruby Mountain, at about 7,610 ft above sea level. There is 2,522 ft of vertical relief in the Buena Vista East quadrangle.
Most of the mountainous part of the Buena Vista East quadrangle is publicly owned land administered by the U.S. Forest Service (San Isabel National Forest) and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. A large part of the Fourmile Travel Management Area, a popular system of designated trails and four-wheel-drive roads for off-road vehicles, is on public lands within the quadrangle. The lands in the Arkansas Valley within the quadrangle are mostly privately owned. Much of the land along Trout Creek and in Piles Pasture east of Midland Hill is private as well. The Arkansas River is the most popular whitewater recreation river in the U.S. and dozens of rafts and kayaks float through the Buena Vista East quadrangle every day from late spring through mid-summer.
