Coming down Trail Ridge Road from the Continental Divide, we get excellent views, but the best view of all is the one shown above looking north across Harbison Meadows to the Never Summer Range, dominated by Mt. Baker on the left. If you look closely, you will see a horizontal line running around the Never Summers. This is the Grand Ditch which, acting like an eavestrough, catches water which would otherwise flow into the Colorado and diverts it over LaPoudre Pass into east-flowing streams. Construction of the Ditch was begun in the 1890s by companies organized to divert west-flowing water to the eastern slope for irrigation.
There is a road parallel to the Ditch, on which vehicles are permitted only for workers maintaining the Ditch and rangers on official business. Because of my work on the history of the Park and mining cabins in the Never Summers which often require my investigation, I arrange to drive the Ditch Road rather often. The Ditch Road is not for the faint-hearted (no, there are no guardrails, and it's 1100' mostly straight down from the edge), as you see in the accompanying photograph ....
... but it does open some exceptional views of the Colorado Valley. In the 1950s I was occasionally asked to escort a National Geographic photographer about the Park, and she was very excited when I showed her this view. As a result, if you happen to have the first edition of National Geographic's "America's Wonderlands: Our National Parks", in a full-page photograph you will see me perched on the summit of the spire on the right.
The Ditch also provides easy access to some hiking where one does not see many people but can see the ruins of the dreams of prospectors of the 1880s. One of my favorite trips is up Hitchings Gulch past Mr. Hitchings' delapidated cabins, on past Dutchtown (a small gold mining village of the 1880s) to Lake of the Clouds, with Lead Mt. in the background.
At the north end of the Ditch, one can spend the night at the Lapoudre Pass Ranger Cabin and -- after chopping some firewood for kindling for breakfast -- can drive a rudimentary road beyond the Park boundary to the end of Long Draw Reservoir to look back into the Park to a truly spectacular view of the north end of the Never Summers.
Two spectacular lakes in the southwest part of the Park are Nokoni (L) and Nanita (R). One reaches them by taking a side trail while hiking over the Continental Divide from Bear Lake to Grand Lake or by simply hiking up the North Inlet trail from Grand Lake.
One of my favorite places on the west side is East Inlet Meadows, only a mile up the East Inlet Trail. This view is particularly nice in the fall when the aspen on the hillside have turned.
But if one continues up the East Inlet Trail and turns right up Paradise Creek, one comes -- after many long and difficult cross-country miles -- to Paradise Park, the creme de la creme of Rocky Mountain National Park. To preserve its pristine character, camping is not permitted in the valley so perhaps no more than 50 people a year see these views of the unspoiled meadows of Upper Paradise. It is so isolated that the first time I was there we recognized Isolation Peak (shown in the picture at right) but had to consult the topo maps to find the names of Watanga and Hiamovi, shown in the small pictre taken at dawn and and also in the bottom view. What a truly magnificent, isolated spot.
