But, where precisely in Yellowstone Park did Colter travel? This question poses an extremely difficult problem in research. (The serious student will find the many ramifications involved in the problem explored more fully in the Appendix.) Unfortunately the dotted line appearing on the Map of 1814, marked "Colter's Route in 1807," is of no help whatever in answering the question. In fact, the map complicates the problem because the geography depicted on the western loop, or so-called Yellowstone Park section of the map, is wholly fictitious. Unlike the valid section east of the Absarokas, the western section bears no similarity to anything in Yellowstone Park, Wyoming, Idaho, Montana, America, the world, or the moon! It is, in fact, a plat of bogus geography comparable only to the kind found in Jonathan Swift's _Gulliver's Travels_. In short, it is obvious that "Colter's Route in 1807," beyond the Yep-pe village, was not properly described because it depicts him as visiting the drainage of all the river systems within a radius of five hundred miles of that Indian encampment. The most obvious errors in that part of the map which impinges upon the western section of this so-called "Colter's Route" are:
(1) Three Forks are shown to the northeast instead of northwest.
(2) Lake Biddle, usually identified as Jackson Lake, could only be Brooks Lake and be on the Bighorn drainage. Jackson Lake lies due south about fifty miles, on the other side of the Continental Divide.
(3) The Rio Del Norte (Green River of the Colorado) is far and away to the south. It is grotesquely misplaced.
(4) The South Fork of Snake River is not depicted, neither is the Jackson Lake area.
(5) Upper Yellowstone River is not shown, and Lake Eustis (presumed to be Lake Yellowstone) is fantastic in all respects.
In view of these egregious errors it is a monumental mistake to insist, as so many authors in effect have done, that Colter was a human helicopter who hopped all over the Rocky Mountains in connection with his Yellowstone exploration. Actual geography and common sense prove that he could not possibly have made such an extensive journey, particularly so late in the season. Just as certainly, geography and common sense attest that in traveling a normal western loop essential to yield conformity with the map's figure eight[44] Colter would have seen precisely the type of country the Map of 1814 does not depict, but which, nevertheless, is actually there! A normal half circle would have brought him upon the Upper Yellowstone River, South Fork of Snake River, Yellowstone Lake, and the thermal areas at Thumb of Lake and Hayden Valley. These paint pots, hot springs, and geysers, particularly Dragon's Mouth and Mud Volcano, satisfy the descriptions he made and easily meet the requirement of the terms on the map, "Boiling Spring," "Hot Springs Brimstone," and also Washington Irving's reference "... of gloomy terrors, hidden fires, smoking pits, noxious streams...." In effect, these areas alone would qualify as "Colter's Hell."