The Serpents Trail, also known as the Trail of the Serpents and the Serpentine Trail, is a trail within the
Colorado National Monument in
Mesa County
Mesa County is a county located in the U.S. state of Colorado. As of the 2020 census, the population was 155,703. The county seat is Grand Junction. The county was named for the many large mesas in the area, including Grand Mesa.
Mesa Co ...
,
Colorado, United States, that is listed on the
National Register of Historic Places.
Description
The trail was built by the visionary
John Otto, who began the campaign to establish the national monument. The trail was, in fact, a road from
Grand Junction through No Thoroughfare Canyon to the
rimrock
Rimrock is the sheer rock wall at the upper edge of a plateau, canyon, or geological uplift. It may refer to either the rock formation or to the rock itself. Rimrock may be composed of almost any stone—basalt, gneiss, granite, sandstone, et ...
near Cold Shivers Point, with an elevation gain of nearly over . From Cold Shivers Point the road proceeded at a gentler grade for to
Glade Park
Glade Park is an unincorporated community and a U.S. Post Office located in Mesa County, Colorado, United States. The Glade Park Post Office has the ZIP Code 81523.
Geography
Glade Park is located at (38.993572,-108.749886), and is west of ...
. Otto began his survey in 1911 with the help of civil engineer J.F. Sleeper. Otto's grand plan was to link Grand Junction to
Moab
Moab ''Mลรกb''; Assyrian: ๐ฌ๐ช๐๐๐ ''Mu'abรข'', ๐ ๐ช๐๐๐
''Ma'bรข'', ๐ ๐ช๐ ''Ma'ab''; Egyptian: ๐๐๐๐
ฑ๐ ''Mลซ'ฤซbลซ'', name=, group= () is the name of an ancient Levantine kingdom whose territo ...
,
Utah by a scenic road to be part of a transcontinental road system. Construction began in 1912 and continued sporadically to 1921, when Mesa County took the project over. Engineer J.B. Claybaugh completed the project in 1924.
The construction of the
Rim Rock Drive
Rim Rock Drive is a scenic road in Colorado National Monument. The drive follows the upper rim of a series of canyons, extending from the vicinity of Fruita, Colorado, in the west to near Grand Junction, Colorado, in the east, connecting points o ...
destroyed portions of the Serpents Trail. A portion has been preserved as a hiking trail.
During the 1930s the Park Service considered upgrading the trail to a higher standard of road, but dropped the project. Only the relatively gentle upper section of the trail was incorporated into Rim Rock Drive in 1939โ40.
[
The trail was added to the National Register of Historic Places April 21, 1994]
See also
*
*
References
External links
*
* at the National Park Service's NRHP database
Park buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Colorado
National Register of Historic Places in Colorado National Monument
Transportation in Mesa County, Colorado
Hiking trails in Colorado
Protected areas of Mesa County, Colorado
Historic American Engineering Record in Colorado
1921 establishments in Colorado
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