BEavEr BrooK TraiL A Lasting Legacy for CMC Volunteers
By Woody Smith
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n 1912, when the Colorado Mountain Club was new, the Denver Mountain Parks were also taking shape in the foothills west of Golden. Since these mountains were essentially a training ground for the young CMC, it was only natural the club would join forces with the new Denver Mountain Parks Commission to help protect them. Over the years CMC members have volunteered countless hours on dozens of projects in the Mountain Parks, but few are better known or longer lasting than the Beaver Brook Trail on Lookout Mountain. Wrote Lucretia Vaile in 1922:
Constructed in stages from 1917 to 1919, the Beaver Brook Trail snakes west over the foothills from Windy Saddle on the Lariat Loop Road, 8 ½ miles to a parking area just west of Bald Mountain (7,988 feet), near the Chief Hosa exit on I-70. In the days before the Mountain Parks, Beaver Brook was a Colorado &
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Beaver Brook trail . . . was suggested by C.M.C. member [George] Barnard, routed by C.M.C. geographers, and obtained by C.M.C. (especially Brooks’) persistence. Our president [Henry] Brooks was a member of the Denver Parks Board at the time and he fought our fight and that of the hiking public to good effect. With the club the Beaver Brook route is an old favorite, our first trip over it being on December 1, 1912. But the trail as it exists today is traveled by many people who have no connection with us and who know it only as one more credit to the city of Denver. (T&T, April 1922)
CMC members pose for a photo along Clear Creek. Courtesy Colorado Mountain Club Archives
Southern Railroad stop about seven miles up Clear Creek Canyon. A trail, dating at least to the 1880s, climbed up Beaver Brook from its junction with Clear Creek. Once the Mountain Parks were established, it was common for tourists to take the train to the Beaver Brook stop and hike up to Chief Hosa Lodge for an overnight stay. But with the construction of the Lariat Loop or Lookout Mountain Road (1913), and its extension to Genesee Park (1914), it soon became apparent that Mountain Park visitors were mostly well-todo automobile owners, rather than the less well-off for whom the parks were intended for also. On April 18, 1917, CMC President Henry Brooks and Vice-president George Barnard attended a meeting of the Denver Mountain Parks Commission. According to the commission minutes: Mr. Barnard spoke at length on the desirability of building more trails in the Mountain Parks region. He then introduced Mr. Burhans of the Tourist and Publicity Bureau who stated that he believed demand was growing stronger each year for more mountain trails within easy reach of Denver, and that he was of the opinion that this medium would, in a measure, solve the problem of keeping the tourist in Denver longer. Mr. Brooks . . . stated that the Club had no funds to build trails but that he and the members of the Club would assist the Mountain Parks Commission in any other way possible. CMC members pictured on December 1, 1912, during the club’s first trip along Beaver Brook Trail. Courtesy Colorado Mountain Club Archives
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Trail & Timberline
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