Ute Pass

For the last 10,000 years, this ancient route through the Rocky Mountains has served as a passage from prairie to high plains in Colorado. It is named for Colorado’s Ute Indians, who made yearly treks through the pass to visit the springs in Manitou and hunt buffalo on the plains. Spanish and American explorers later followed the trail, and Major Lon’s expedition of 1820 stopped for lunch on bison ribs near the springs at the bottom of the pass, where he wrote in his diary that “a large and frequented road passes the springs and ascends into the mountains.” Gold prospectors by the thousands led their burros up the old trail, followed by freighters hauling supplies to the gold camps. Timber cutters, ranchers, and the first standard gauge railroad to cross the Rocky Mountains also wound their way up the pass. El Paso County took its name from this important route, which later became the first “Ocean to Ocean” Highway. In the resort town of Cascade below stood the tower of the famous Ramona Hotel, a summer retreat of presidents and politicians, and the Cascade Town Company, backed by the Colorado Midland Railway, helped build the Carriage Road to the summit of Pike Peak.

Cascade-Chipita Park, Colorado · United States