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<br />valley walls along the lower Blue River. Along much of the Snake <br />River and Tenmile Creek, these soils occur on the flood plain. <br />T Ese SOl S a <br />colored and wet, and those soils that occupy tl. ere moun in <br />slopes and high plateaus are moderately deep to deep, light colored <br />and well drained. The soils were formed in materials weathered from <br />a variety of crystalline and sedimentary rocks. Granite, sandstone, <br />gneiss, basalt, rhyolite, and other rock outcrops are interspersed <br />among the soil areas. The native vegetation consists mainly of <br />Engelmann's spruce, subalpine fir, lodgepole pine, limber pine, and <br />aspen.. <br /> <br />The remainder of the county, alpine areas ranging in elevation from <br />11,000 feet to 14,500 feet, consists of the Rock Outcrop-cryumbrepts- <br />Cryochrepts Association and the Ptarmigan-Bobtail-Rock OUtcrop Asso- <br />ciation. Mosses and lichens on the rocks are the only vegetation <br />types in much of this area. A variety of alpine shrubs along with a <br />few grasses and sedges grow On the more protected slopes (References <br />4 and 5). <br /> <br />i' <br /> <br />The Slue River basin, which covers all of summit County, is on the <br />west side of the Continental Divide and feeds into the Colorado <br />River at the Town of Kremmling. The basin has a drainage area of <br />514 square miles and generally drains in a north to northwest direc- <br />tion. The basin width ranges from 21 miles at Lake Dillon to 9 <br />miles at Green Mountain Reservoir. The topography is mountainous <br />with larger rivers in deep broad valleys and smaller creeks in steep <br />gullies. The basin is bounded by the Continental Divide on the east <br />and south, from Loveland Pass to Fremont Pass; the Gore Range and <br />Vail Pass form the boundary On the west. The average elevation in <br />the basin is approximately 10,000 feet (Reference 6). There has <br />been little development along the riverbanks with the exception of <br />some gravel-mining operations and scattered houses. <br /> <br />The Willow Creek basin drains to the east from the Gore Range into <br />Blue River at Silverthorne. It has a total drainage area of 13.5 <br />square miles and a basin length of 4.3 miles. The basin width <br />varies from 4 miles, at the upper section around willow Lakes, to 1 <br />mile, at the foot of the Gore Range. The channel slope averages 2.7 <br />percent at Silverthorne and 9.8 percent in the Gore Range. The <br />elevations in the basin range from 8,620 to 13,300 feet. <br /> <br />Tenmile Creek flows to the north or northeast for 12 miles from near <br />Fremont Pass to Lake Dillon. Tenmile Creek basin parallels the <br />upper Blue River basin, and Tenmile Range divides the two. The <br />western boundary of the basin is formed by the Gore Range and Vail <br />Pass, and the southern boundary is the Continental Divide. The <br />upper basin is characterized by open, rolling terrain. In contrast, <br />the lower basin consists of narrow, winding Tenmile Canyon. At <br />~risco, the total drainage area is 94 square miles, 35 square miles <br />of which~is in the upper basin above the confluence with West Ten- <br />mile Creek. The basin width is 7 miles, and the total basin length <br /> <br />, <br /> <br />6 <br />