Alpine Lake, Cerro Blanco Mountains, Col. Height of peak over 14,000 feet. Lake 11,000 feet above sea-level

O'Sullivan, Timothy H., 1840-1882 · [1874]

Descriptive legend of view no. 20: This scene is in the vicinity of Fort Garland, Colorado. It represents one of a group of ten lakes reposing in a little park of great beauty, which is bounded on threes sides by Baldy and Cerro Blanco Peaks and the adjacent spurs. These lakes lie on terraces one above the other, at a general altitude of 11,000 feet. The uppermost are kept full and cool throughout the summer by the drip from the drifts of snow which lie perennially at the sheltered base of the peaks. From these the overflow feeds the lower ones in succession, and finally gives rise to the main branch of Ute Creek, which receives the drainage of this entire park, and is famous for its clear and cool waters and abundance of trout. Cerro Blanco Peak, one of the highest in Colorado, being 14,270 feet above the sea, may be seen to the left of the center of the picture. It was climbed, so far as is known, by white men for the first time on the 14th of August, 1874, when a topographical party of this expedition accomplished its ascent, reaching the summit late in the evening and spending the remainder of the night on its highest pinnacle. There they found a circular wall of rude stone-work, which had evidently been thrown up for a shelter by the Indian sentinels who, in earlier days, had used this peak as a watch-tower from which they might descry the approach of invading enemies on the neighboring plains.