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<br />'28S(; <br />South of Mesa Verde, ~n the southeast corner of the <br />. reservation in New Mexico, the characterist~c mesa and <br /> <br />butte topography gives way to steeply dipping structural <br /> <br />features. <br /> <br />Here the more resistant sandstone beds form <br /> <br />rows of parallel hogbacks with low valleys formed by the <br /> <br />less resistant rocks between them. This feature is known <br /> <br />as "the Hogback." <br /> <br />The Ute Mountains lie west of Mesa Verde and occupy <br /> <br />most of the north\~estern part of the project area. <br /> <br />They <br /> <br />are one of several laccolithic mountains in the Colorado <br /> <br />plateaus of Colorado and adjoining States. <br /> <br />The Ute <br /> <br />Mountains are similar in structure and rock type to the <br /> <br />Henry Mountains of southeastern Utah (Ekren and Houser, <br /> <br />1958, p, 74) and are formed by a small group of sills, <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />laccoliths, and :otocks intruded into and doming the <br /> <br />sedimentary rocks. <br /> <br />The highest and most prominent peak <br /> <br />lS Ute Peak, altitude 9,977 feet. <br /> <br />South of the Ute Mountains is a rough plain cut in <br /> <br />soft Cretaceous shale and characterized in general by a <br /> <br />barren rolling and irregular surface. <br /> <br />The surface lS <br /> <br />cut by deep gullies that formed rapidly during desert <br /> <br />rainstorms. <br /> <br />~lis surface slopes southward from the <br /> <br />mountains to the Mancos River, which joins the San Juan <br /> <br />River near Four Corners. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />.5.L <br />