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Platte River Basin to the north (Trout Creek). The elevation of the divide in the center of the community is approximately 8,500 feet. Climatic conditions are strongly influenced by Pikes Peak, elevation 14,110 feet, which is 10 miles to the south. The low point in the study area, 8,000 feet, is at the downstream Limit of the Detailed Study for Fountain Creek. Outside the developed areas, the terrain is steep. Precipitation patterns on either side of the divide are different. Fountain Creek, within the Arkansas River Basin, is subject to more intense rainfall than is Trout Creek, in the South Platte River Basin. The apparent topographic factor is Ute Pass, along the Fountain Creek valley, which funnels storms from the eastern plains to Woodland Park. The difference in precipitation and runoff patterns is evident from variations in vegetation and channel geometry characteristics between the basins. A search for rain gage data to verify this difference did not reveal sufficient information to make a statistical analysis. The Fountain Creek basin drains an area of 11.5 square miles at the El Paso Teller County line. Of this, 3.7 square miles are above 9,000 feet. The majority of the basin is undeveloped. In the undeveloped areas, vegetation consists of sparse stands of pine trees interspersed with grass meadows. Residential and commercial development is concentrated along U.S. Highway 24 in the upper portion of the basin. The Trout Creek basin, including its tributaries (Lovell and Loy Culches), is either lightly developed or undeveloped except for the reach of Loy Gulch that is located within, or adjacent to, the corporate limits of Woodland Park. This reach is undergoing resi- dential development. In the lower Lovell Gulch basin, residential and road development has obliterated the natural channel. No well-defined channel exists. The majority of the basin is lightly forested with areas of grass meadows. At the downstream Limits of Study, the Trout Creek basin drains on area of 23.5 square miles. The average annual precipitation is 20 inches, one-third to one- half of which occurs as snow. Temperatures typically range from -300F in the winter to 1000F in the summer. Soils in the area are thin and rocky in the upper elevations. Typical soils in the area are classified as Rule-Chesseman-Plome-Crystola. In the lower areas, a highly erodible granular soil originating from decomposed granite is prevalent. Except for Fountain Creek, stream channels are typically composed of sandy-clay, alluvial deposits. The channels, other than in steep reaches, tend to be wide, shallow, and grass-lined with a poorly defined boundary between the main channel and the overbank areas. For Fountain Creek, the developed channel has bottom deposits of medium to coarse sand up to several feet thick and well-defined banks of clayey sand. Bank erosion is active on limited reaches of lower Fountain Creek. 5