Description
The purpose of this CGS publication is to describe the geologic setting, mineral and ground-water resources, and geologic hazards of this 7.5-minute quadrangle located in the Front Range, north of Woodland Park, Colorado. Consulting geologists Jay Temple and Rich Madole, staff geologist John Keller, and field assistant Dawn Martin completed the field work on this project during the summer of 2006. The sedimentary bedrock unit descriptions, structural geology, and water resource sections of this report were written by Mr. Temple. Dr. Madole completed the sections on surficial deposits and geologic hazards. Mr. Keller contributed the crystalline bedrock unit descriptions and mineral resources sections. Ms. Martin contributed to descriptions of the sedimentary bedrock. Digital ZIP/PDF download. OF-07-07D
From the Author’s Notes:
The Mount Deception 7.5-minute quadrangle is located in Teller and El Paso Counties, Colorado, in the southern part of the Colorado Front Range. The city of Colorado Springs (Census 2000 population of 360,890) is located approximately 17 miles southeast of the quadrangle. The town of Woodland Park (Census 2000 population of 6,515) is partially located in the southern part of the quadrangle and is accessible from Colorado Springs via State Highway 24. State Highway 67 transects the center of the quadrangle from north to south, connecting Woodland Park with the towns of Deckers, Buffalo Creek, and Pine Junction. Trout Creek, the major drainage throughout the west-central part of the quadrangle, flows northward to join the South Platte River near the town of Deckers. The South Platte watershed supplies a large share of water consumed by Denver and other cities to the north and east along the foothills of the Front Range. Several creeks and streams that originate in the mountains in the eastern and western parts of the quadrangle flow into Trout Creek. Fountain Creek is located just south of the quadrangle and flows southeastward through Ute Pass and into Monument Creek in Colorado Springs. The Fountain Creek watershed provides a major supply of water for the region to the south and southeast. The highest point in the quadrangle is the quadrangle’s namesake, Mount Deception, located in sec. 13 of T. 11 S., R. 69 W. (elevation 9,363 feet), and the lowest point (elevation 7,600 feet) is in the Trout Creek valley bottom in the northwestern part of the quadrangle.
The quadrangle can generally be described as having a central, north-south trending valley, bordered on the east and west sides by mountainous terrain. The eastern mountains are part of the Rampart Range, which trend north-south for over forty miles from Colorado Springs to Kassler. The West Creek Range borders the western part of the quadrangle. Most of this mountainous region is rugged, forested land administered by the U.S. Forest Service (Pikes Peak Ranger District, Pike National Forest). A significant portion of the Pike National Forest is comprised of the Manitou Experimental Forest which was established by the U.S. Forest Service in 1936 to study problems of land use and its relation to the management of natural resources in the Front Range ponderosa pine zone (Gary, 1985). The Ponderosa pines are accompanied by Lodgepole pine, Douglas fir, Engelmann spruce, and aspen. Average precipitation is 16 inches near Manitou Lake, with seventy percent accounted for by rain from April through August and the remaining thirty percent from snow during the winter months.
