Mineralization has been intense in the San Juans; most of it took place during the Late Tertiary volcanic period. Rich [veins] penetrate Precambrian [gneiss] and [granite], and Paleozoic limestones are often enriched also. Several mines are still active near Ouray, Silverton, Telluride, and Rico.
Uinta Mountains
The eastern end of Utah’s Uinta Mountains extends into Colorado. Unlike other ranges in Colorado, these mountains trend east-west. Structurally, the range is a faulted [anticline]. It is quite asymmetrical, however, and is tilted and folded upward on the south, and overturned or thrust-faulted on the north. Steeply dipping Mesozoic and Paleozoic sediments on the south side of the range, sparsely vegetated and often thrown into spectacular [folds], are a prominent feature of northwest Colorado scenery.
In Colorado the crest of the Uintas reaches an elevation of about 8,500 feet. It consists of Precambrian rocks, but these are not the igneous and metamorphic rocks that characterize the Precambrian core of other Colorado mountains. They are easily recognized as sediments—dark red [conglomerates], sandstones, and mudstones—virtually unmetamorphosed though they were deposited nearly a billion years ago. Called the Uinta Mountain Formation, these rocks are found only in this part of Colorado and adjacent areas of Utah. They are probably related to similar Precambrian rocks found in Montana and Canada.
At the east end of the Uintas two isolated uplifts, Cross Mountain and Juniper Mountain, are faulted blocks of Paleozoic rocks standing like islands in a sea of Cenozoic valley fill. They are the last outposts of the Uinta anticlinal pattern as it wanes toward the southeast.
Dinosaur National Monument, a Uinta Mountain tourist attraction, encompasses a vast area of wilderness on both sides of the Yampa River in Colorado. Here many of the features of the east end of the Uinta Mountain structure can be seen. A unique display of the world’s largest [fossils] can be visited in the Utah portion of the Monument.
At their confluence in Dinosaur National Monument, the Yampa and Green Rivers have carved Late Paleozoic sandstone into the precipitous cliffs of Steamboat Rock. (William C. Bradley photo)
THE [PLATEAUS]
The western quarter of Colorado is a region of flat-lying Paleozoic, Mesozoic, and Cenozoic [sedimentary rocks] which have not been bent up into mountains except in a few isolated instances. This area lies more than a mile above sea level, however, and because of the gradient such an elevation affords, it is deeply sculptured. The Colorado River and its tributaries have sliced into the [plateau] surface, separating it into many isolated tablelands or [mesas]. Some are capped with sedimentary rock, others with Tertiary [basalt].