Best Summit Hikes in Colorado. James Dziezynski
in the 1800s. Glacial rivers smoothed and polished the land, carving deep cirques in the sides of mountains. In modern times, these glaciers are making their last stand as Colorado’s mountains prepare for the next great geological event.
Poets would have us believe that mountains are static and permanent features, everlasting monuments that contrast with mankind’s brief stint on Earth. The less romantic truth is that mountains are constantly changing. Discrete modifications in height occur every few years, though it takes precision instruments to sense most changes. Events such as the explosive eruption of Washington’s Mount St. Helens in 1980 are business as usual for mountain ranges but have a long-lasting impact on humans when they occur in our lifetime. Mountains are no less subject than we are to the forces of nature, though they offer resilience that projects permanence.
Human History in the Colorado Rockies
After the most recent ice age (roughly 11,000 years ago), the first human inhabitants took up residency in the Rockies. These primitive people endured harsh winters in pursuit of the great mammals that roamed in the valleys. Mammoths were coveted for the amount of meat they would yield and for their sturdy bones and ivory tusks, which could be shaped into tools. People migrated with the animals, leaving few permanent settlements in their wake.
Laramide Orogeny
The Rocky Mountains owe their airy existence to a geological event known as the Laramide Orogeny. The word orogeny comes from the Greek language and means “mountain building.” In context, orogenies specifically describe mountains that have risen as a result of plate tectonics. To simplify what is an incredibly complex process, think of Earth’s continents as floating plates akin to shards of broken ice on a pond. The “pond” that our continents float upon is called the lithosphere. When these shards collide, whole continents are shaped by the plates driving into one another until one finally yields and slides beneath the dominant shard—a process known as subduction. As the “defeated” plate drifts under the “victorious” plate, the land of the upper plate is pushed higher and higher, and the raw forms of mountains appear. After centuries of refinement at the behest of the elements, the mountains begin to take on the dramatic shapes we identify with our greatest peaks. The collision that formed Colorado’s mountains is known as the Laramide Orogeny.
The Laramide Orogeny (named for the Laramie Mountains in eastern Wyoming) began roughly 80 million years ago, though the start of such a slow-acting phenomenon is difficult to pinpoint. The process continued for nearly 40 million years. As the North American continental plate slid westward, it eventually converged with the oceanic Pacific Plate, also know as the Farallon Plate. The North American Plate was the dominant of the two and began to glide over the Pacific Plate, pushing it down.
Slowly, the Pacific Plate slid between the North American Plate and Earth’s mantle—the last solid layer before the planet’s molten core. Because of the relatively snug fit of these plates and the shallow angle of subduction, there was little volcanic activity. As the plates converged in fits and starts, the land from Alaska to Mexico grew increasingly higher.
Prototypes of the Rocky Mountains formed at this time. As the plates settled, cracks in the layers (called geologic faults) released high-pressure volcanic magma. These delayed eruptions occurred several million years after the start of the Laramide Orogeny. Major flows in the Sawatch and San Juan Ranges contributed to the formation of mountains. Eventually, the plates locked into place and the magma was sealed below the Earth, surfacing from time to time to heat a hot spring or to vent through fumaroles. The land stabilized over the centuries, making the Rocky Mountains a fixture on the continent, where they will continue to stand tall for generations to come.
Many of the tribes that formed over the years are familiar names: Apache, Arapahoe, Cheyenne, Crow, Shoshoni, Sioux, and Ute, to list a few. These people flourished as they mastered yearly patterns of migration. Autumn and winter were spent on the warmer, lower plains, while spring and summer were ideal times to hunt and forage in the mountains.
Undoubtedly lost in these annals of time are the first true ascents of the major mountains in Colorado. While most of these feats have gone undocumented, it is naive to assume that the native people were any more exempt from the lure of the mountains than we are today. Alas, history is written from the perspective of the conqueror and not the conquered, and the mystery of who first set foot atop these peaks will remain unknown.
Among the first meddling Europeans to explore the Rockies was Francisco Vásquez de Coronado, the fabled ambassador of Spain who was, unfortunately, very good at his job. His journeys to the southern Rocky Mountains (mostly in New Mexico) in 1540 introduced native people to the ways of the white man. While there were a few beneficial results for the indigenous peoples from these encounters, such as the introduction of the horse and metalworking, the downside was a near eradication of the natives’ culture, habitat, and spirituality.
The Spanish influence on the southern Rockies is evident today, with many peaks in the San Juan Mountains (itself an obviously Spanish moniker) named after Spanish explorers and missionaries. A select few mountains have reverted back to their native names in modern times.
A slow stream of Western European men began to infiltrate the Colorado region, mostly in search of fur and timber, and an uneasy alliance between the natives and newcomers was reached. In the late 1700s, as the nation of America came into being, people grew more curious in what lay in the uncharted lands to the west. The Scottish Canadian explorer Sir Alexander Mackenzie crossed the Rockies in 1793, on his way to the first transcontinental navigation of North America. He would later go on to discover the Arctic Ocean. The turbulent river that runs from Great Slave Lake north to the Arctic is named in his honor. Following in his footsteps, bold miners and fur traders set up the first European settlements in Colorado.
Shortly after Mackenzie’s exploration, the fabled Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804–1806) set about making detailed descriptions of the land along the Missouri and Columbia Rivers, which entailed crossing the Rocky Mountains. They encountered many of the native peoples on their journey, many of whom were peaceful, or at worst, ambivalent to the band of American explorers. Lewis and Clark opened the door for many famous explorers, whose names are on our maps today: Kit Carson, Jim Bridger, Zebulon Pike, John Fremont, Jedediah Smith, and John Colter. These mountain men became larger than life for their exploits in the Wild West.
Lewis and Clark opened the door for many explorers: Kit Carson, Jim Bridger, Zebulon Pike, John Fremont, Jedediah Smith, and John Colter. These mountain men became larger than life for their exploits in the Wild West.
Miners doggedly combed the land for precious minerals in the Rocky Mountains region and finally hit gold in Colorado in 1859. Gold deposits in the mineral-rich South Platte River region were the catalyst that led to an explosion in mining. “Pikes Peak or Bust” was the order of the day, as dreamy miners dug into the rocky earth in search of great wealth. William Green Russell, a native Georgian, was the first to establish a successful gold mine, just outside of the present-day city of Englewood. By the 1860s, Central City and Idaho Springs were major hubs of mining commerce, with cities on the plains such as Boulder, Golden, and Denver playing supporting roles.
Now that the land had tangible value, greed became a motivating factor in the extermination and relocation of the native people. Overpowered by the guns of the white man, the native tribes were hastily removed from the landscape as more and more settlers claimed legal ownership of the earth. Friction culminated in the disgraceful slaughter of peaceful Cheyenne and Arapahoe natives in Kiowa County, a horrible event later known as the Sand Creek Massacre. On November 29, 1864, a cowardly group of Colorado militiamen mercilessly slaughtered an encampment of mostly elderly men, women, and children, killing more than 200. This point marked the beginning of the end for the people who had called Colorado home for centuries.
As the gold mines in the high country began to sputter out, mining got a shot in the arm with the great silver discoveries outside of Leadville in 1879. More and more settlers stayed in Colorado after the lodes ran dry, moving