ROCKY MOUNTAIN National Park CO LO 1^^.00 UNITED STATES RAILROAD ADMINISTRATION NATIONAL PARK. SERIES Copyright by WiswaU The Village of Estes Park nestles in a quiet little valley, surrounded by mountains Page two An Appreciation of Rocky Mountain National Park By ENOS A. MILLS, Author of "Wild Life on the Rockies," "The Rocky Mountain Wonderland," etc. Written Especially fer the United States Railroad Administration j]HE Rocky Mountain National Park is a marvelous grouping of gentle­ ness and grandeur; an eloquent, wordless hymn, sung in silent, poetic pictures; a wilderness mountain world of groves and grass plots, crags and canyons, rounded lakes with shadow-matted shores that rest in peace within the purple forest. There are wild flowers of every color, and many a silken meadow edged with ferns. Brokenness and beauty, terrace upon terrace, a magnificent hanging wild garden. Over these terraces waters rush and pour. From ice-sculptured, snow-piled peaks, young and eager streams leap in white cascades between crowding cliffs and pines. Through this wildness winds the trail, with its secrets of the centuries, where adventures come and go and where the magic camp fire blossoms in the night. In these primeval scenes the grizzly bear gives to the wilderness its master spell; the mountain ram poses on the cliff; the laughing, varied voice of the coyote echoes when the afterglow falls; the home-loving beaver builds his willow-fringed hut; the birds sing; the cheerful chipmunk frolics and never grows up; and here the world stays young. The Rocky Mountain National Park holds adventure for every visitor. In it the world is new and wild, and on the imagination it produces the explorer's stirring joys. Its mile-high, unfenced scenes give freedom—splendid landscapes of the ideal world. Here for everyone are health and hope, efficiency and joy. Not a wild animal in this or any national park is ferocious. Strong is the friendliness of nature. With it everyone has a place in the sun. Her privileges are for each and all. Nature is universal, and here the stranger makes intimate acquaintances. Prejudice ceases. Each is at his best. In this greatest wilderness meeting place the East and the West understand and become friends. Travel unites people. Into this Park through the years will pour a continuous procession of peoples to mingle and form an international conference of friends. Here flags of nations and national boundary lines are forgotten. Kinship is the spirit of Nature. Page three To the American People: Uncle Sam asks you to be his guest. He has prepared for you the choice places of this continent—places of grandeur, beauty and of wonder. He has built roads through the deep-cut canyons and beside happy streams, which will carry you into these places in comfort, and has provided lodgings and food in the most distant and inaccessible places that you might enjoy yourself and realize as little as possible the rigors of the pioneer traveler's life. These are for you. They are the playgrounds of the people. To see them is to make more hearty your affection and admiration for America. Secretary of the Interior Rocky Mountain National Park MAGINE a giant hand with hued wild flowers; then people the the base of the palm as Arcadia plentifully with the wild life, Estes Park Village and the whose natural home it is—the finned, fingers extending westward furred and feathered—the wily trout, toward the Divide, the the beaver and the mountain sheep (to fingers roughly representing the moun­ mention only a few); and lastly spread tain spurs, moraines and peaks given off over all a turquoise blue sky with a dry, from the main range, and the spaces be­ crystal atmosphere, shot through with tween, the intermediate canyons, with brilliant sunshine, and you will have an their many streams, which converge at idea of what Rocky Mountain National the village to form the Big Thompson Park really is. River; imagine another but smaller hand The attendance figures are increasing to the south reaching into the park from each year far beyond the most enthusias­ the east towards Long's Peak and the tic prophesies. Even though it is one peaks to the south, the streams from this of our newest national parks, it annually watershed forming the St. Vrain River; entertains more visitors than any of the then imagine the finger tips merging into other national parks. the Continental Divide, each as a living When it is considered that the vaca­ glacier—and there you will have the tionist is whisked from Chicago or St. Park's topography. Louis to Denver, then set at the foot of Then clothe the canyons in garments one of the mightiest mountains of the of evergreen forest and the glades with Rockies' main range in about a day and the quaking aspen, floor the rocky a half of actual travel, it is realized how gorges with sky-blue lakes and hang much of a public benefit was conferred their walls with tumbling waterfalls, when Congress in 1915 set aside this, carpet all the open spaces—from above the easternmost of our western national timber line down to the broad spreading playgrounds. meadows where the rivers merrily sing Not only is this national park the their way—with a huge army of brilliant composite »f all that is fairest, most Pago tout Auto highway through the Big Thompson Canyon. The approaches to the Park are of untiring interest to the visitor, and the roads a constant delight to tha motorist Page five awe-inspiring and climatically ideal in north and south, and fifteen miles east the Rocky Mountain region, but it is and west, embracing about 400 square not far from the geographical center of miles of territory. the country, and is the most easily From the northwest corner to the reached by a large number of people of middle of its southern boundary the all our national parks. snow-capped giants forming the Conti­ This region of endless wonder and nental Divide rear their grim, rocky fascination is only seventy miles from crests in an irregular line which forms Denver by auto all the way, or by the backbone of this Park and is its rail to several different gateways, thence commanding feature, ever present, ever auto for about twenty-five or forty changing, and ever awe-inspiring. Here miles—not a long, tiring, monotonous are fifty-one peaks with summits more ride through an uninteresting country, than 10,000 feet high, also unnumbered but instead it is a motor trip that ranks canyons, about 200 lakes, many un­ among the finest in Colorado. Follow­ named, waterfalls, glaciers, native forests ing the rushing waters of the Big Thomp­ and wild flowers. Exceptionally rugged son or the St. Vrain, over hard-surfaced and out-of-the-way places appeal espe­ roads, through deep canyons, wonderful cially to the explorer. in their coloring, the big, roomy, power­ There is probably no mountain range ful automobiles take the grade with such more majestic than the main range of ease that one hardly realizes that he is the Rockies as seen from almost any climbing rapidly. Enraptured by the part of the Park, and one of the most intensely interesting scenes, the traveler striking features is the accessibility of is all too suddenly aware of his journey's these mountain tops. One may mount end, when the magnificent panorama of a horse after early breakfast in the val­ Estes Park Village and Rocky Mountain ley, ride up Flattop to enjoy one of the National Park unexpectedly bursts into great views of the world, and be back for view. Soon he is eating dinner at one late luncheon; or cross the Continental of the large hotels, or at a small ranch Divide from the hotels of one side to the hotel, or in a modestly appointed cot­ hotels of the other side of the Park, be­ tage, as choice may dictate. A feature tween early breakfast and late dinner. of the Park is its adaptability; one may From early dawn, with its delicate rest and recreate amid most entrancing tints of rose and amethyst, to later surroundings, with a range of accommo­ afternoon, with its golden sunshine and dations from the elaborate furnishings lengthening purple shadows, the range and service of the large city hostelry to presents an ever-changing panorama. the simplicity of the secluded log cabin On a peak, perhaps, settles momentarily or the outpost tent cottage. In short, a gray snow-cloud; in yonder canyon life may be lived here in a manner to suit breaks a brief-lived shower, sunshot with the taste and the purse of the individual. silvery rain as it quickly clears away; He may rough it or enjoy the con­ while over all, the fleece flecked sap­ veniences and luxuries of the city. The phire sky and dazzling sunlight hold tired business man who just wants to sway. At midday, all Nature rests and "loaf" amid incomparable grandeur; in its brighter light the range seems to the active, outdoor young American; cower and grow small, only to reassert the geologist, who is studying moraines itself in full power and majesty as day and glaciers, and the botanist, all will ends with a sunset of such splendor as find life enjoyable here. only the Rockies may boast. Another noteworthy feature is that It is in its nearer and more intimate special outfitting is unnecessary; no aspects, however, that the exquisite unusual preparation need precede the beauties of the Park reveal themselves.