page_title: Uncompahgre Plateau
hierarchical_section_title: Uncompahgre Plateau
caption_attribution_description: English: A map of Colorado, with Uncompahgre National Forest highlighted in red. The light green is other Forest Service land, yellow is BLM land, dark green is National Park, brown is National Monument or National Historic Site, pink is Indian reservation. The reddish lines are Interstate Highways. David Benbennick made this map with data from nationalatlas.gov. The map uses the azimuthal equidistant projection, centered on (-105.7167, 39.1333) (degrees latitude, longitude). The area outside Colorado is transparent, so it should look nice on non-white backgrounds. Eventually, I will upload the 4 megabyte Metapost script I used to make this map. In the mean time, see map.mp.
context_page_description: The Uncompahgre Plateau in western Colorado is a distinctive large uplift part of the Colorado Plateau. Uncompahgre is a Ute Indian word that describes the water: "Dirty Water" or "Rocks that make Water Red".
  The plateau, with an average elevation of 9,500 feet, rises from the Colorado River 4,600 ft to Horsefly Peak 10,300 ft. It continues on about 90 miles southeast to the northwest margin of the San Juan Mountains. Its boundaries are the San Miguel and Dolores Rivers to the west, the Colorado River to the north and the Gunnison and Uncompahgre Rivers on the eastern side.
  Large canyons such as Big Red, Tabeguache, Spring Creek, Roubideau, Escalante, Big Dominquez, and Unaweep are separated by generally flat mesas. The Plateau watersheds include four tributaries of the Colorado River: Dolores River, Gunnison River, San Miguel River and Uncompahgre River.
  The Uncompahgre Plateau includes about 2,290 square miles in five counties: Delta, Mesa, Montrose, Ouray, and San Miguel.
  The plateau is under the management of:
  United States Forest Service Uncompahgre National Forest land 545,907 acres
  Bureau of Land Management 545,280 acres
context_section_description: The Uncompahgre Plateau in western Colorado is a distinctive large uplift part of the Colorado Plateau.  Uncompahgre is a Ute Indian word that describes the water: "Dirty Water" or "Rocks that make Water Red".
  The plateau, with an average elevation of 9,500 feet (2,900 m), rises from the Colorado River 4,600 ft (1,400 m) to Horsefly Peak 10,300 ft (3,100 m).  It continues on about 90 miles (140 km) southeast to the northwest margin of the San Juan Mountains.  Its boundaries are the San Miguel and Dolores Rivers to the west, the Colorado River to the north and the Gunnison and Uncompahgre Rivers on the eastern side.
  Large canyons such as Big Red, Tabeguache, Spring Creek, Roubideau, Escalante, Big Dominquez, and Unaweep are separated by generally flat mesas. The Plateau watersheds include four tributaries of the Colorado River: Dolores River, Gunnison River, San Miguel River and Uncompahgre River.
  The Uncompahgre Plateau includes about 2,290 square miles (5,900 km²) in five counties: Delta, Mesa, Montrose, Ouray, and San Miguel.
  The plateau is under the management of: 
  United States Forest Service Uncompahgre National Forest land 545,907 acres (2,209.21 km²)   (37%)
  Bureau of Land Management 545,280 acres (2,206.7 km²)   (37%)
  State of Colorado: Colorado State Land Board and Colorado Division of Wildlife land 8,689 acres (35.16 km²)   (<1%)
  Private property, mostly in the Uncompahgre Valley, totals 365,547 acres (1,479.32 km²)   (25%)
caption: Uncompahgre National Forest (red) location in Colorado
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