Ashley Fetner Fine Art Photography

Cameron Pass at 10,278 feet is the route between Fort Collins and Walden Colorado as you travel   Scenic Byway Highway 14.   Cameron Pass is a gap between the south end of the Medicine Bow Mountains and the north end of the Never Summer Mountains.  The pass was named for Robert Cameron, who founded the Fort Collins Agriculture Colony in 1872, to promote new business and agriculture to settle in the area of Fort Collins. Cameron Pass is another reason to travel Highway 14 Scenic Byway between Fort Collins and Walden Colorado.

 

Kay

 

 

 

 

We found Profile Rock Bridge, a large rock formation, as we traveled along Colorado Highway 14, the Scenic Byway between Fort Collins and Walden Colorado.  This Scenic Byway follows Colorado’s first National Wild and Scenic River, The Cache la Poudre. The main and south forks of the river originate in the Rocky Mountain National Park and flows through the Roosevelt National Forest.

The origin of the rivers name can be traced back to early French trappers. During a heavy snowstorm it is said that trappers buried their supply of gunpowder in a cache near the mouth of the river. Highway 14 has seen many travelers; the Native Americans traveled through this river canyon and the 1800’s brought trappers, miners and loggers through the area.  This beautiful Scenic Byway is one that you do not want to miss!

Kay

 

 

Aspen Trees, native to cold regions with cool summers, have a wide range of distribution from Alaska to Newfoundland and down the Rocky Mountains to Mexico.  It is said the Colorado and Utah are home to the largest portion of natural acreage of Aspen in the world. They are usually found at elevations from 6,900 to 10,500 feet.  Aspens have a unique reproducing system that enables them to colonize and produce groves of trees.  Each trees root system produces small shoots that produce other trees so there can be thousands of trees linked together in this root system.  Aspens are able to survive forest fires because their root system is below the heat of the fire. They are sometimes called “Quaking Aspen” due to the flutter of the leaves in the wind.  In the fall, the leaves range in color from brilliant yellows, gold and reds lasting only about a week. The soft white wood of the Aspen has a      range of uses from toothpicks, matchsticks, chopsticks, packing materials to beautiful furniture.  The Aspen also provides a habitat for wildlife; in fact the Aspen is a staple food for the beaver. Related to the willow family, the Aspen contains salicylates (as in aspirin) which were used for medicinal purposes by the Native Americans.  The leaves and bark were used to treat burns, irritations, aches, pain and swollen joints.  A tea was made from the bitter inner bark to treat urinary tract infections, the Ojibwe used the bark as a poultice and the Cree ate the inner bark for a mild purgative.  There are many interesting facts to be found pertaining to these unique trees but traveling in Colorado and experiencing the astounding colors and “quaking” of the sunlit Aspens will absolutely take your breath away –

 

Kay

 

Mesa Verde National Park was the home of the Ancestral Pueblo people for over seven hundred years from A.D. 600 to A.D. 1300. In June of 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt established the Mesa Verde National Park to “Preserve the work of man”.    Mesa Verde contains four-thousand known archeological sites with six-hundred cliff dwellings that represent the best preserved sites of this kind in the United States.  For the first six centuries the Pueblo people lived on the top of the mesa and it was not until the last seventy-five to one -hundred years when they began to build and live in the cliff dwellings.  To the archeologists they were known as Anazsi from the Navajo word meaning “the ancient ones”.  They had been a nomadic tribe but began to farm and were well known for their basket weaving skills.  They planted corn, beans and squash as well as supplementing their diet with wild plants, deer and other game in the area. By A.D. 1300 the dwellings were empty as the Ancestral Pueblo migrated into New Mexico and Arizona. There are approximately twenty-four tribes that are descendents of these “ancient ones”: The nineteen Pueblo tribes in New Mexico, Hopi Tribe in Arizona, Ysleta del Sur Pueblo in Texas, Ute Mountain Ute Tribe in Colorado, Southern Ute in Colorado, and the Navajo Nation in Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico.

 

Kay

 

Mesa Verde National Park was the home of the Ancestral Pueblo people for over seven hundred years from A.D. 600 to A.D. 1300. In June of 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt established the Mesa Verde National Park to “Preserve the work of man”.    Mesa Verde contains four-thousand known archeological sites with six-hundred cliff dwellings that represent the best preserved sites of this kind in the United States.  For the first six centuries the Pueblo people lived on the top of the mesa and it was not until the last seventy-five to one -hundred years when they began to build and live in the cliff dwellings.  To the archeologists they were known as Anazsi from the Navajo word meaning “the ancient ones”.  They had been a nomadic tribe but began to farm and were well known for their basket weaving skills.  This view of Square Tower House is from the overlook located on the Mesa Top Road.

 

Kay

 

 

 

Spruce Tree House is the third largest cliff dwelling thought to be constructed between A.D. 2011 and A.D. 1278.  Built into a natural alcove, the house contains one- hundred and thirty rooms, eight ceremonial chambers known as kivas and had about sixty to eighty people living there. In 1888 two ranchers, who were searching for stray cattle, were the first people to re- discover Spruce Tree House. They noticed a large Douglas fir tree growing from the front of the dwelling to the top of the mesa so they climbed down the tree to enter the cliff dwelling.  Excavation of the site was done by Dr. Jesse Walter Fewkes of the Smithsonian Institute in 1908.

 

Kay

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mesa Verde National Park was the home of the Ancestral Pueblo people for over seven hundred years from A.D. 600 to A.D. 1300. In June of 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt established the Mesa Verde National Park to “Preserve the work of man”.    Mesa Verde contains four-thousand known archeological sites with six-hundred cliff dwellings that represent the best preserved sites of this kind in the United States.  For the first six centuries the Pueblo people lived on the top of the mesa and it was not until the last seventy-five to one -hundred years when they began to build and live in the cliff dwellings.  To the archeologists they were known as Anazsi from the Navajo word meaning “the ancient ones”.  They had been a nomadic tribe but began to farm and were well known for their basket weaving skills. Spruce Tree House is the third largest cliff dwelling thought to be constructed between A.D. 2011 and A.D. 1278.  Built into a natural alcove, the house contains one- hundred and thirty rooms, eight ceremonial chambers known as kivas and had about sixty to eighty people living there.

 

Kay

 

In June of 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt established the Mesa Verde National Park to “Preserve the work of man”.   Mesa Verde was the home of the Ancestral Pueblo people for over seven hundred years. The park contains four thousand known archeological sites as well as six hundred cliff dwellings and is the best preserved sites in the United States.  As Ashley and I were leaving the park the sun was setting……..

 

Kay

Colorado National monument, located southwest of Grand Junction Colorado, is thirty-two miles of semi-desert plateau and canyon country.  It is a fascinating landscape where natural rock sculptures have been carved out of the canyon by water, wind and ice erosion.  In 1907 John Otto wrote “I came here last year and found these canyons, and they felt like the heart of the world to me. I’m going to stay and promote this place because it should be a national park.”People thought he was crazy to live alone in such a wild and desolate place but he loved the land and he built miles of trails through the canyons so others could enjoy the beauty he had found here.  He urged the residents of Grand Junction to send letters and petitions to the politicians in Washington, DC.  So in1911 the Colorado National Monument was established.  John was named the park’s caretaker and held that job until 1927.

Kay

Colorado National monument, located southwest of Grand Junction Colorado, is thirty-two miles of semi-desert plateau and canyon country.  It is a fascinating landscape where natural rock sculptures have been carved out of the canyon by water, wind and ice erosion.  In 1907 John Otto wrote “I came here last year and found these canyons, and they felt like the heart of the world to me. I’m going to stay and promote this place because it should be a national park.”People thought he was crazy to live alone in such a wild and desolate place but he loved the land and he built miles of trails through the canyons so others could enjoy the beauty he had found here.  He urged the residents of Grand Junction to send letters and petitions to the politicians in Washington, DC.  So in1911 the Colorado National Monument was established.  John was named the park’s caretaker and held that job until 1927.  The Coke Ovens are a series of rock domes that were sculpted from the forces of water, wind and ice over the years.

 

Kay