FLOOD08946

• County: Eagle
• Community: Vail
• Stream Name: Gore Creek
• Basin: Colorado Mainstem
• Title: Gore Creek Floodplain Information
• Date: 6/1/1975
• Prepared For: Vail
• Prepared By: HYDRO-TRIAD, LTD.
• Floodplain - Doc Type: Floodplain Report/Masterplan

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during the late Pleistocene period and the valley floor near the
Town Of Vail at some time in the past has been much deeper. The
alluvial deposits within the valley currently exceed 100 feet in
riepth and are interfingered with coarser side tributary talus and
slope wash deposits. Layers of peat or high organic content layers
are found at infrequent levels throughout the alluvium. The upper
end of most of the side tributaries. such as Booth, Pitkin on the
north side of the basin and numerous smaller tributaries on the south
side of the basin are formed in bowl-shaped depressions that were
createdby"hanging"glaciersornivationhollowsduringthePleisto-
cene period. The lower levels of the bow1s afe founded on erosion

Forested

Non-Forested
floodPlain
Meadow (subalpine/Montane)

Deciduous

Coniferous

Mixed Coniferous (3 or
more species)

Tundra

Shrub

Coniferous-Deciduous

KrUllTIlholl

There were seventeen sub_categoryc1assificationsunder thenin e
major classifications.

The forested areas and non.forested areas were delineated and

totaled for each sub-basin and are shown on Table 1-1.

So11s

resistant or harder sandstone or limestone members of the Minturn
Formation-. The sections of the side tributaries that pass through
these more resistant members are typified by very steep gradients and
series of cliffs.

The soils of the basin are derived from both the harder crystalline
rock forming the spioe of the Gore Range and the sedimentary deposits of
the Mioturn aod Marooo FOnTlatioos. Iogeoera1,theresidual soils east
of the Gore Fault are very meager aod often barely or do not cover the
underlying crystalline rocks. The residual soils within the area of the
Minturn Fonrnation are somewhat deeper although the soils tend to be
coarse.grained since they are derived maioly from the coarser sandstone
and cong1omeritic members of the formations.

There are various locations through the valley where large mass
wasting or rock.soi1 slides have occurred. Many of these are associated
with downward dipping or badly jointed shale or mudstone layers that
provided planes of weakness.

Vegetal Cover

The General Soil Map of Eagle County, prepared by staff members
of the Soil Conservation Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, is.
as the title indicates, a very generalized map of the soils within the
area. ThiSmdt: indicates only four scil types within the Go"eCreek

The vegetal cover aspects of the basin dnd sub-basins have been
derived from the U.S.G.S. Quad maps and material supplied through

INSTAAR whiCh was obtained from high altitude aircraft photo work of

both color infrared and standard black and white imagery. The INSTAAR
vegetation mapping categories included the following nine major
classifications:

Basin. These seil associations a"e: