Frustrated in their attempt to climb Pike’s Peak on November 27, 1806, Zebulon Pike and his party of 15 continued through South Park in search of the Red River, the southern boundary of the Louisiana Purchase. After crossing Trout Creek Pass, they again reached the Arkansas River with food perilously low. On Christmas Eve, two hunting parties killed eight buffalo, and they spent Christmas Day near the mouth of Squaw Creek, one-half mile to the south, feasting on buffalo and repairing equipment. Early in 1807, Pike crossed into the San Luis Valley at the Great Sand Dunes and built a log stockade on the Conejos River near present La Jara, where the Spanish took him prisoner.