Ute Trail, near Alpine Visitors Center, Rocky Mountain National Park - Estes CO
Project type: Parks and Recreation, Paths and Trails
Started: 1933
Completed: 1942
Quality of Information: Very Good
Marked:
Unknown
Site Survival: Extant
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Description
During the Great Depression, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) built and improved trails throughout Rocky Mountain National Park, working on such things as rock wall construction and trail alignment. The CCC was active in the park for the entire life of the program, 1933 to 1942.
The CCC ‘boys’ built around 100 miles of trails – one-third of the total. It is uncertain exactly which trails the CCC enrollees improved, but “the enrollees were largely the driving force behind creating, maintaining, and reconstructing many popular trails.” (Brock, p 40)
Several trails are included in the National Historic Registry listings for Rocky Mountain National Park, in part for the work done by the CCC:
One example is the Flattop Mountain trail, an older trail that was relocated in 1925 and then improved by the CCC during the summer and fall of 1940. Other examples are the Fern Lake Trail and Gem Lake Trail (see associated site pages).
More trail improvements done by the CCC can be found on the History Colorado website.
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Trail Map, Rocky Mountain National Park - Estes CO
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Flattop Mountain trail, Rocky Mountain National Park - Estes
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Fern Lake Trail, Rocky Mountain National Park - E CO
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Timber Creek trialhead, Rocky Mountain National Park - Grand Lake CO
Source notes
https://www.historycolorado.org/location/flattop-mountain-trail
https://www.historycolorado.org/location/fern-lake-trail
Phyllis Perry, Rocky Mountain National Park. Charleston SC: Arcadia Books. 2008. p. 85ff.
Julia Brock, A History of the CCC in Rocky Mountain National Park. Report to the Rocky Mountain Nature Association and Rocky Mountain National Park, 2005. https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/rmnp/ccc.pdf
Project originally submitted by Shaina Potts on April 27, 2015.
Additional contributions by Richard Walker.
We welcome contributions of additional information on any New Deal project site.
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