Water Resources of Colorado
Water, Energy, and Biogeochemical Budgets (WEBB)
The Loch Vale Watershed is a 661-ha alpine/subalpine basin located in the south-central Rocky Mountains, about 100 km northwest of Denver, Colorado. The basin is in a roadless area in Rocky Mountain National Park and is accessed by a 5-km hike or ski from the trailhead near Bear Lake. The western boundary of the basin is the Continental Divide; streams drain to the northeast. Basin elevations range from 4,192 m (13,153 ft) at Taylor Peak to 3,110 m (10,200 ft) at the outlet. There are two main subbasins in Loch Vale: Andrews Creek drains the northern subbasin, and Icy Brook drains the southern subbasin. These two creeks join above the Loch, which is the lowest of three lakes in the basin. Stream gages are operated on Andrews Creek, Icy Brook, and at the Loch outlet.
Large glaciers that covered much of Rocky Mountain National Park during the late Pleistocene sculpted the basin into characteristic glacial landforms, including steep u-shaped valleys, cirques, and arêtes. When the glaciers retreated about 12,500 years ago, they deposited till of varying thickness, which is confined mostly to the forested, lower part of the basin. Smaller, more recent glacial advances left younger till, talus, and rock glacier deposits in the upper parts of the basin. The younger glacial and periglacial deposits are largely unvegetated. Geomorphology and vegetation may be used to identify a range of characteristic landscapes in Loch Vale, each of which appear to have unique hydrologic and biogeochemical processes operating within them.
This page is at URL: http://co.water.usgs.gov/lochvale/site-des.html
Please send questions and (or) comments about the Colorado WEBB project to: co.lochvale@usgs.gov
Maintained by: webmaster_co@usgs.gov
Last Modified: 01/29/2002
