North Inlet Trail
Larimer County
The Ute and other indigenous groups most likely traveled along North Inlet. In 1868, an audacious mountaineering party perhaps followed the trace of a prehistoric North Inlet Trail. It is generally believed that Major Wesley Powell and a small group of students and associates–the first group on record to successfully climb Longs Peak–approached their objective by tramping up the drainage of the North Inlet.
North Inlet Trial (2006 photograph.)
The National Park Service (NPS) began working on the modern alignment of the 11.5-mile trail in 1926. The trail’s design reflects the principles of Naturalistic Design as practiced in the 1920s through the 1940s, specifically in the implementation of the trail design of NPS landscape architect Allison van V. Dunn and trail crew supervisor Bert L. Moses. The property is associated with the Rocky Mountain National Park and the Historic Park Landscapes in National and State Parks Resources Multiple Property Submissions.
This site continues into Grand county.