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CHAPTER IV DESCRIPTION OF AREA . indicate that the average historical runoff from the area exceeds 2,200,000 acre-feet a year. This runoff varies greatly from year to year, the maximum yearly runoff for most streams being about four to five times larger than the minimum yearly runoff. (BR 1957) Yampa River The Yampa River begins on the eastern end of the White River Plateau. It is fed by numerous small tributaries that drain adjoining areas of the plateau and the western slopes of the Sierra Madre, Park, and Gore Ranges. In its upper course the river is turbulent and runs for many miles through rocky defiles and narrow valleys. It follows a northerly course and, after emerging from the foothills near Steamboat Springs, traverses the open country that lies toward the west. Its general direction is then westward past Hayden and Craig and on through the Axial Basin, the eastern portion of a long erosional trough lying on the south side of the Sand Wash Basin and just north of the Danforth Hills. Two isolated mountains--Juniper and Cross Mountains--rise abruptly from the floor of this trough. The Yampa River cuts through both of these mountains in deep canyons, each approximately 3 miles long. . For 11 miles below Cross Mountain Canyon, the river runs a peaceful course through Lily Park but then enters the narrow Bear Canyon in Dinosaur National Monument which extends westward between Douglas Moun- tain and the Yampa Plateau to the river's confluence with the Green River near the Colorado-Utah State line. Bear Canyon and the initial reach of the Green River below the confluence are included in the Dinosaur National Monument. The Yampa River has several principal tributaries--the Elk River, Elkhead Creek, Williams Fork River, Milk Creek, and the Little Snake River. It also has numerous smaller tributaries, many of which are only intermittent streams. The Elk River rises in the Sierra Madre Mountains about 25 miles north of Steamboat Springs. It flows southward through the once famous Hahns Peak placer mining district and a broad agricultural valley before emptying into the Yampa River about 7 miles west of Steamboat Springs. Elkhead Creek joins the Yampa about 6 miles above Craig, and Forti- fication Creek enters at Craig. Both of these streams rise in the Elkhead Mountains and flow southward through a rolling prairie region. The Williams Fork River, the principal tributary from the south, empties into the Yampa a few miles below Craig. It rises on the White River Plateau a short distance from the origin of the Yampa River and flows northwesterly along the south side of the Williams Fork Mountains to its junction with the Yampa. . 26