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| Elk have been wiped out in and returned to what is now Rocky Mountain National Park during the past 150 years. |
Indeed, during the 1800s, the Ute and Arapaho hunted and traveled across the park, but there's no sign of permanent settlements. The Ute primarily resided west of the Continental Divide near Grand Lake and came onto the prairie to hunt bison. The Arapaho lived east of the divide on the Plains and hunted the area that is now Estes Park. Pawnee, Sioux and Apache also crossed this region.
Major Stephen Long first explored the region for the United States in 1820. His expedition didn't enter the mountains, but he recording sighting the park’s highest point – Longs Peak – which was named for him.
European-Americans began settling the area in 1843 when hunter Rufus Sage set up his home there. In 1858, Joel Estes sought elk in the area to feed Colorado miners. After the elk were wiped out and cattle grazing in the high mountain meadows proved unprofitable, Estes and his neighbors decided to offer boarding to those wanting to see the Front Range’s spectacular sites. Thus began the region’s tourism industry.
News about exploration of the area helped fuel tourism. Explorer John Wesley Powell made the first recorded ascent of Longs Peak in 1868; hikers also can ascend the mountain via the East Longs Peak Trail. Local homesteader Abner Sprague peakbagged a number of other area mountains in the years that followed.
Teenage miner Enos Mills’ building of a cabin in Tahosa Valley during 1884 certainly didn’t attract much attention, but it proved to be a pivotal moment in the park’s history. A few years later, Mills spent time in California with American naturalist John Muir and afterward returned to Longs Peak, where he dedicated his life to conservation. Mills since has become known as the “Father of Rocky Mountain National Park.”
Freelan Stanley, inventor of photographic plates, moved to the area in 1905, opened an inn and became a leader in the tourism economy. He worked to return elk to the park by transplanting the species from Montana. Today, elk often can be seen on the Alpine Ridge Trail.
The combined efforts of these men and many others ultimately led to the creation and opening of Rocky Mountain National Park in 1915.
That same decade, Fall River Road was constructed to link Estes Park and Grand Lake in the summer, increasing accessibility to the Front Range's interior; the road still exists today, and the Chapin Creek Trail is a good day hike on it. Then in the Great Depression, the better quality Trail Ridge Road was constructed, allowing motorists to discover the park in the post-war boom.
In September 2013, a flood damaged a number of the park's east-side trails and bridges when 18 inches of rain fell over three days. Communities at lower elevations suffered far more damage than did the park, but even today short detours remain on some trails to avoid fallen trees, lost water crossings, and unstable slopes.
Learn more about the park's day hiking trails in my Best Sights to See at Rocky Mountain National Park.
