Geneva Creek is a short tributary of the North Fork South Platte River

North Fork South Platte River

The North Fork South Platte River is a tributary of the South Platte River, approximately 50 miles long, in central Colorado in the United States...

, approximately 14.7 miles (23.7 km) long, in central Colorado

Colorado

Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...

 in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. It drains part of the Rocky Mountains

Rocky Mountains

The Rocky Mountains are a major mountain range in western North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch more than from the northernmost part of British Columbia, in western Canada, to New Mexico, in the southwestern United States...

 southwest of Denver

Denver, Colorado

The City and County of Denver is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Denver is a consolidated city-county, located in the South Platte River Valley on the western edge of the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains...

 in northern Park County

Park County, Colorado

Park County is the 17th most extensive of the 64 counties of the State of Colorado of the United States. The county was named after the large geographic region known as South Park, which was named by early fur traders and trappers in the area. The geographic center of the State of Colorado is...

. It rises at the continental divide

Continental divide

A continental divide is a drainage divide on a continent such that the drainage basin on one side of the divide feeds into one ocean or sea, and the basin on the other side either feeds into a different ocean or sea, or else is endorheic, not connected to the open sea...

 west of Mount Bierstadt

Mount Bierstadt

Mount Bierstadt is a mountain in the Front Range region of the Rocky Mountains, in Clear Creek County, Colorado. It is one of 54 fourteeners in Colorado. It is located approximately 1.5 miles WSW of Mount Evans. The nearest major city is Denver...

 and descends through a canyon to the southeast. It joins the North Fork South Platte from the north at Grant

Grant, Colorado

Grant is an unincorporated town and a U.S. Post Office in Park County, Colorado, United States. The community is located in foothills of the Front Range in the Platte Canyon, in the upper valley of the North Fork South Platte River, approximately 6 miles east of Kenosha Pass. It sits along U.S....

 along U.S. Highway 285. The valley of the river provides the route of the Guanella Pass Scenic Byway between Georgetown

Georgetown, Colorado

The historic town of Georgetown is a Territorial Charter Municipality that is the county seat of Clear Creek County, Colorado, United States. The former silver mining camp along Clear Creek in the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains was established in 1859 during the Pike's Peak Gold Rush...

 and Grant.

The upper part of Geneva Creek is an iron fen

Fen

A fen is a type of wetland fed by mineral-rich surface water or groundwater. Fens are characterised by their water chemistry, which is neutral or alkaline, with relatively high dissolved mineral levels but few other plant nutrients...

, where iron oxide is deposited by mineral-rich groundwater coming to the surface. Natural springs create high dissolved concentrations of copper

Copper

Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29. It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is soft and malleable; an exposed surface has a reddish-orange tarnish...

 and zinc

Zinc

Zinc , or spelter , is a metallic chemical element; it has the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. It is the first element in group 12 of the periodic table. Zinc is, in some respects, chemically similar to magnesium, because its ion is of similar size and its only common oxidation state is +2...

to the stream.

External links

• Clear Creek County Open Space, Geneva Creek Iron Fen.
• Colorado State Parks, Geneva Basin Iron Fens