Rocky Mountain National Park (Part 1)

Rocky Mountain National Park protects 265,807.25 acres within the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains in northern Colorado. The park contains 60 mountains over 12,000 feet, 150 lakes, 450 miles of rivers and streams, and 355 miles of trails across alpine, subalpine, montane, and riparian environments. The Colorado River headwaters originate in the northwestern region of the park and the Continental Divide crosses through its center from northwest to southeast. The east entrances are in Estes Park, CO and the west entrance is in Grand Lake, CO.

Joseph Wescott became the first permanent resident of Grand Lake in 1867, moving there with the hopes of curing his rheumatism. During the winter, Wescott allegedly resorted to consuming boiled leather from a chair and a pair of shoes before a hunting party saved him.

Harbison Meadows lies along the western end of Trail Ridge Road in the Kawuneeche Valley. The meadows are named after Annie and Kitty Harbison, the first two people to file for homesteads in the Kawuneeche Valley in 1895. They had adjoining homesteads and grazed their dairy cows in these meadows. Many trees in the area show damage caused by the East Troublesome Fire of 2020. Unfortunately, the park area has experienced several destructive wildfires since the start of the 20th century. The Bear Lake Fire of 1900 started from a campfire and burned for two months. The Ouzel Fire of 1978 was caused by lightning and burned 1,050 acres. The Cow Creek Fire of 2010 burned over 1,500 acres near Estes Park. The Fern Lake Fire of 2012 was caused by an illegal campfire and burned nearly 3,500 acres over two months. In 2020, the two largest wildfires in Colorado state history, the Cameron Peak Fire and the East Troublesome Fire, burned nearly 30,000 acres within the park.

People have occupied areas near Rocky Mountain National Park for at least 11,000 years. Projectile points recovered at Fall River Pass, Flattop Mountain, Forest Canyon Pass, above Chapin Pass, near Oldman Mountain, and elsewhere in the park indicate that Paleoindians of the Clovis culture followed game trails through the area for seasonal hunting. Archaic hunter-gatherers also left behind remains of 42 game drive systems built between 3850-3400 BCE on Mount Ida, Tombstone Ridge, and by Trail Ridge Road. These low-walled stone structures or cairns could be hundreds of feet long and were arranged in a V-shape to funnel herds of large animals toward men waiting with weapons.

The Colorado River provides water to seven states across the Southwest and its headwaters can be traced to Le Poudre Pass Lake in the Never Summer Range of Rocky Mountain National Park.

The faint horizontal line midway up Green Knoll is Grand Ditch, a canal that diverts 20-40% of the runoff from the Never Summer Mountains northeast into Long Draw Reservoir for plains farmers. Construction on the canal began in 1890 and was completed in 1936.

The U-shaped Kawuneeche Valley was carved out by the Colorado River Glacier, which was 20 miles long, over 1,500 feet thick, and receded about 14,000 years ago. As it receded, it carried large amounts of rock and sediment which were deposited along the sides and end of the glacier in mounds called moraines, or glacial tills. Forests now grow on the lateral moraines along the Kawuneeche Valley.

Miner Joseph Fleshuts built this cabin on his 160-acre homestead in 1902. By 1911, he abandoned it never to be heard from again. In 1918, John Holzwarth bought the property and added it to his own neighboring homestead. The Joseph Fleshuts Cabin is now the first structure visitors encounter at Holzwarth Historic Site.

Mama Cabin was the first cabin constructed by the Holzwarths between 1917-1921. The Holzwarths moved to the Kawuneeche Valley in 1917 and began operating their property as a guest ranch in 1919. Completion of Fall River Road in 1920 vastly improved accessibility to the Holzwarth Trout Lodge, as it was known between 1920-1929. As tourism increased, the Holzwarths constructed a dude ranch on the east side of the Colorado River called the Never Summer Ranch. In 1974, The Nature Conservancy bought the ranch and transferred it to the National Park Service (NPS) the following year. Ranch structures near Trail Ridge Road were then removed to allow the site to return to a natural state. In 1977, the remaining buildings were listed on the National Register of Historic Places as Holzwarth Historic District.

Twin I Cabin was built in 1921, Twin Cabin II built in 1923, and Rose Cabin was the last structure built at the ranch in 1951.

The Never Summer Mountains are the only volcanic range in Rocky Mountain National Park. In the 1870s and 1880s, gold and silver prospectors established Lulu City, Dutchtown, and Gaskill in the Never Summer Mountains. However, low-grade ore combined with high transportation costs made mining unprofitable and miners began deserting their claims in 1883. By 1886, the three towns were abandoned. Lulu City was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979 and Dutchtown was listed in 1988.

Around 1200-1300 CE, Ute people migrated from the west into North Park, Middle Park, and the area that would become Rocky Mountain National Park. They were hunter-gatherers who camped in bands or small family groups within the park area during the summer and in Estes Park over the winter. In the early 1800s, the northern Arapaho moved into the area and pushed the Utes out of Estes Park. A significant battle between the tribes occurred at Grand Lake over access to the North Park, Middle Park, and South Park areas but the Utes successfully drove the Arapaho back over the Continental Divide. Other tribes that occasionally hunted or raided in the area include the Apache, Cheyenne, Sioux, and Shoshone. By 1860, most of the northern Arapaho left the area, and in 1878, they were forcefully relocated to the Wind River Indian Reservation.

The Ute and Arapaho traveled between Middle Park and Estes Park along three main trails marked by cairns. The Ute used Child’s Trail, which was so steep in one section that children had to dismount from their horses. Dog Trail was used by the Arapaho to haul goods on travois pulled by dogs through the snow. Big Trail was used by Arapaho warriors to quickly travel over Flattop Mountain to the Kawuneeche Valley. Ute Trail and Trail Ridge Road follow the path of Child’s Trail and Old Fall River Road was constructed along the path of Dog Trail.

Milner Pass was named after engineer T.J. Milner, who surveyed a railroad route over the pass that was never built. Milner Pass is where Ute Trail starts and where Trail Ridge Road crosses the Continental Divide. Rivers and streams west of the divide flow into the Colorado River and eventually reach the Pacific Ocean while those on the east join the Mississippi River and eventually reach the Atlantic Ocean. Within the park, the west side of the Continental Divide is generally wetter with thicker forests while the east side is drier with glaciated peaks and cirques.

The first nonnative people to visit the Front Range were French fur trappers in the 1700s, followed by American fur trappers in the early 1800s. In 1820, Stephen Harriman Long led an expedition into the western frontier that traveled along the Front Range and the "highest peak" he identified was later named Longs Peak in his honor. In 1843, Rufus B. Sage became the first Anglo-American to enter the area now known as Estes Park. Joel Estes later discovered the park while on a hunting trip with his son Milton in 1859. In 1860, Joel Estes, his wife, six children, five slaves, and some friends moved to the park. After the Civil War began, Estes freed his slaves in Missouri, where he was from. In 1864, editor William Byers visited the park and climbed Mount Meeker after failing to summit Longs Peak. He recounted the experiences in articles for the Rocky Mountain News where he named the park Estes Valley due to the great hospitality shown by the Estes family. In 1865, Charles F. Estes, grandson of Joel, became the first Anglo-American born in the park. However, the winters proved too harsh for the Estes family and they moved to New Mexico in 1866. The following year, Griffith “Griff” J. Evans bought the Estes property and moved into the cabin.

In 1868, William Byers, John Wesley Powell, and five other men accomplished the first documented summiting of Longs Peak. In 1871, the U.S. Geological Exploration of the Fortieth Parallel under Clarence King surveyed areas that would become Rocky Mountain National Park. In 1873, the U.S. Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories led by Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden also covered areas of the future park and employed William Henry Jackson to take photographs. These surveys brought national attention to the area and Estes Park developed into a tourist town in the 1870s. Isabella Bird, who rented a cabin from “Griff” J. Evans in 1873, later published A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains in 1879, further promoting the area. Frederick H. Chapin also explored the area and published Mountaineering in Colorado: The Peaks about Estes Park in 1889. Mount Chapin and Ypsilon Mountain are named for Chapin and his wife.

As Estes Park grew, people moving to the area typically gained employment in the mining, ranching, lodging, or lumber industries. One controversial outlier was Windham Thomas Wyndham-Quin, Fourth Earl of Dunraven and Mount-Earl. He first visited the area to hunt elk in 1872 and 1873 before attempting to fraudulently acquire control over 15,000 acres for a private game reserve in 1874. Drifters were instructed to make 160-acre claims under the Homestead Acts and amass more land through preemption rights before selling the property to Lord Dunraven. Locals described it as "one of the most gigantic land steals in the history of Colorado," with Lord Dunraven taking possession of about 6,400 acres before claims from other settlers interrupted his scheme. With his original plan thwarted, the Earl built a game park and hunting lodge in Dunraven Glade to the north and started a cattle ranch on his lands in Estes Park called the English Dairy.