Kenosha Pass
Encyclopedia
Kenosha Pass, elevation 9997 ft (3,047.1 m), is a high mountain pass
located in the Rocky Mountains
of central Colorado
in the United States
.
The pass is located in the Rocky Mountains
southwest of Denver, Colorado
, just northeast of the town of Fairplay, Colorado
. Geologically
, the pass is located atop a large granite
batholith
(known as the Kenosha Batholith) that forms the spine of the Front Range along the eastern side of South Park
. It is traversed by between Jefferson and Grant
, and provides a route between the valley of the North Fork South Platte River
and the headwaters of the South Platte River
in South Park. In addition to providing one of the principal access routes to South Park, the pass offers dramatic view of the surrounding Rockies, including the nearby peaks of Mount Evans
and Mount Bierstadt
.
s, never reaching above the treeline and featuring easily-negotiable curves along an amply wide highway. The approach on the eastern side is fairly gentle, ascending from near Grant
up a gulch at the headwaters of the North Fork. The western side of the pass has a steeper ascent, winding up the flank of a mountainside east of the town of Jefferson
. An overlook on the west side of the pass offers a panoramic view of South Park. The top of the pass is nearly flat and surrounded by the Pike National Forest
, with a National Forest Service campground on the summit.
The pass was used by Ute
bands to reach the hunting grounds of South Park. In the 19th century the pass was used by white trappers to traverse the Front Range. During the Pike's Peak Gold Rush of the 1860s the pass was heavily used by prospectors eager to reach the placer
gold fields at the headwaters of the South Platte near Fairplay
and other South Park mining communities. The increase in traffic led to the widening of the trail into a wagon road; during the Colorado Silver Boom
the pass became one of the main routes of entry for eager immigrants to Leadville
, Breckenridge
, and Aspen
.
The Colorado Trail
crosses the summit of Kenosha Pass. The trail portion near the campground and heading northwest is popular with mountain bike enthusiasts and hikers.
In 1879 the pass was traversed by the narrow gauge Denver, South Park and Pacific Railroad
, providing the first rail link between Denver and the South Park mining communities such as Fairplay (the tracks were removed by 1937, but the modern highway essentially follows the railroad route over the pass). During this same year of 1879, the poet
Walt Whitman
crossed the pass and described its summit with these words, later published in Specimen Days
:
episode "The Return of the Fellowship of the Ring to the Two Towers" a sign for Kenosha Pass can be seen as the boys walk from South Park to Conifer to the video store. In the episode "Prehistoric Ice Man," a man who has been frozen since 1996 goes back to his wife, who says he was lost on Kenosha Pass.
Mountain pass
A mountain pass is a route through a mountain range or over a ridge. If following the lowest possible route, a pass is locally the highest point on that route...
located in the Rocky Mountains
Rocky Mountains
The Rocky Mountains are a major mountain range in western North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch more than from the northernmost part of British Columbia, in western Canada, to New Mexico, in the southwestern United States...
of central Colorado
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...
in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
The pass is located in the Rocky Mountains
Rocky Mountains
The Rocky Mountains are a major mountain range in western North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch more than from the northernmost part of British Columbia, in western Canada, to New Mexico, in the southwestern United States...
southwest of Denver, Colorado
Denver, Colorado
The City and County of Denver is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Denver is a consolidated city-county, located in the South Platte River Valley on the western edge of the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains...
, just northeast of the town of Fairplay, Colorado
Fairplay, Colorado
The Town of Fairplay is a statutory town that is the county seat and the most populous town of Park County, Colorado, United States. Fairplay is located in South Park at an elevation of . The town is the fifth-highest incorporated place in the State of Colorado. The population was 610 at the...
. Geologically
Geology
Geology is the science comprising the study of solid Earth, the rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which it evolves. Geology gives insight into the history of the Earth, as it provides the primary evidence for plate tectonics, the evolutionary history of life, and past climates...
, the pass is located atop a large granite
Granite
Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...
batholith
Batholith
A batholith is a large emplacement of igneous intrusive rock that forms from cooled magma deep in the Earth's crust...
(known as the Kenosha Batholith) that forms the spine of the Front Range along the eastern side of South Park
South Park (Colorado basin)
South Park is a high intermontane grassland basin, approximately 10,000 ft in elevation, in the Rocky Mountains of central Colorado. It encompasses approximately 1,000 square miles around the headwaters of the South Platte River in Park County approximately 60 mi southwest of Denver...
. It is traversed by between Jefferson and Grant
Grant, Colorado
Grant is an unincorporated town and a U.S. Post Office in Park County, Colorado, United States. The community is located in foothills of the Front Range in the Platte Canyon, in the upper valley of the North Fork South Platte River, approximately 6 miles east of Kenosha Pass. It sits along U.S....
, and provides a route between the valley of the North Fork South Platte River
North Fork South Platte River
The North Fork South Platte River is a tributary of the South Platte River, approximately 50 miles long, in central Colorado in the United States...
and the headwaters of the South Platte River
South Platte River
The South Platte River is one of the two principal tributaries of the Platte River and itself a major river of the American Midwest and the American Southwest/Mountain West, located in the U.S. states of Colorado and Nebraska...
in South Park. In addition to providing one of the principal access routes to South Park, the pass offers dramatic view of the surrounding Rockies, including the nearby peaks of Mount Evans
Mount Evans
Mount Evans is a mountain in the Front Range region of the Rocky Mountains, in Clear Creek County, Colorado. It is one of 54 fourteeners in Colorado, and the closest fourteener to Denver...
and Mount Bierstadt
Mount Bierstadt
Mount Bierstadt is a mountain in the Front Range region of the Rocky Mountains, in Clear Creek County, Colorado. It is one of 54 fourteeners in Colorado. It is located approximately 1.5 miles WSW of Mount Evans. The nearest major city is Denver...
.
Description
The pass is easily traversable by most vehicleVehicle
A vehicle is a device that is designed or used to transport people or cargo. Most often vehicles are manufactured, such as bicycles, cars, motorcycles, trains, ships, boats, and aircraft....
s, never reaching above the treeline and featuring easily-negotiable curves along an amply wide highway. The approach on the eastern side is fairly gentle, ascending from near Grant
Grant, Colorado
Grant is an unincorporated town and a U.S. Post Office in Park County, Colorado, United States. The community is located in foothills of the Front Range in the Platte Canyon, in the upper valley of the North Fork South Platte River, approximately 6 miles east of Kenosha Pass. It sits along U.S....
up a gulch at the headwaters of the North Fork. The western side of the pass has a steeper ascent, winding up the flank of a mountainside east of the town of Jefferson
Jefferson, Colorado
Jefferson is an unincorporated town and a U.S. Post Office in Park County, Colorado, United States. It is located the northern end of South Park, along U.S. Route 285, approximately 15 miles northeast of Fairplay, at the western foot of Kenosha Pass. It lies from Como, from Bailey, and from...
. An overlook on the west side of the pass offers a panoramic view of South Park. The top of the pass is nearly flat and surrounded by the Pike National Forest
Pike National Forest
The Pike National Forest is located in the Front Range of Colorado, USA, west of Colorado Springs and including Pikes Peak. The forest encompasses 1,106,604 acres within Clear Creek, Teller, Park, Jefferson, Douglas and El Paso counties. The major rivers draining the forest are the South Platte...
, with a National Forest Service campground on the summit.
The pass was used by Ute
Ute Tribe
The Ute are an American Indian people now living primarily in Utah and Colorado. There are three Ute tribal reservations: Uintah-Ouray in northeastern Utah ; Southern Ute in Colorado ; and Ute Mountain which primarily lies in Colorado, but extends to Utah and New Mexico . The name of the state of...
bands to reach the hunting grounds of South Park. In the 19th century the pass was used by white trappers to traverse the Front Range. During the Pike's Peak Gold Rush of the 1860s the pass was heavily used by prospectors eager to reach the placer
Placer mining
Placer mining is the mining of alluvial deposits for minerals. This may be done by open-pit or by various surface excavating equipment or tunneling equipment....
gold fields at the headwaters of the South Platte near Fairplay
Fairplay, Colorado
The Town of Fairplay is a statutory town that is the county seat and the most populous town of Park County, Colorado, United States. Fairplay is located in South Park at an elevation of . The town is the fifth-highest incorporated place in the State of Colorado. The population was 610 at the...
and other South Park mining communities. The increase in traffic led to the widening of the trail into a wagon road; during the Colorado Silver Boom
Colorado Silver Boom
The Colorado Silver Boom was a dramatic expansionist period of silver mining activity in the U.S. state of Colorado in the late 19th century. The boom started in 1879 with the discovery of silver at Leadville...
the pass became one of the main routes of entry for eager immigrants to Leadville
Leadville, Colorado
Leadville is a Statutory City that is the county seat of, and the only municipality in, Lake County, Colorado, United States. Situated at an elevation of , Leadville is the highest incorporated city and the second highest incorporated municipality in the United States...
, Breckenridge
Breckenridge, Colorado
Established in 1859, the historic town of Breckenridge is a home rule municipality that is the county seat of Summit County, Colorado, United States. As of the 2010 Census, the town had a population of 4,540. The town also has many part-time residents, as many people have vacation homes in the area...
, and Aspen
Aspen, Colorado
The City of Aspen is a Home Rule Municipality that is the county seat and the most populous city of Pitkin County, Colorado, United States. The United States Census Bureau estimates that the city population was 5,804 in 2005...
.
The Colorado Trail
Colorado Trail
The Colorado Trail is a long trail running from the mouth of Waterton Canyon southwest of Denver to Durango in Colorado, United States. Its highest point is above sea level, and most of the trail is above...
crosses the summit of Kenosha Pass. The trail portion near the campground and heading northwest is popular with mountain bike enthusiasts and hikers.
In 1879 the pass was traversed by the narrow gauge Denver, South Park and Pacific Railroad
Denver, South Park and Pacific Railroad
The Denver, South Park, and Pacific Railroad was a historic narrow gauge railway that operated in Colorado in the western United States in the late 19th century. The railroad opened up the first rail routes to a large section of the central Colorado mining district in the decades of the mineral boom...
, providing the first rail link between Denver and the South Park mining communities such as Fairplay (the tracks were removed by 1937, but the modern highway essentially follows the railroad route over the pass). During this same year of 1879, the poet
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
Walt Whitman
Walt Whitman
Walter "Walt" Whitman was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among the most influential poets in the American canon, often called the father of free verse...
crossed the pass and described its summit with these words, later published in Specimen Days
Specimen Days
Specimen Days is a 2005 novel by American writer Michael Cunningham. It contains three stories: one that takes place in the past, one in the present, and one in the future. Each of the three stories depicts three central, semi-consistent character-types: a young boy, a man, and a woman...
:
- I jot these lines literally at Kenosha summit, where we return, afternoon, and take a long rest, 10,000 feet above sea-level. At this immense height the South Park stretches fifty miles before me. Mountainous chains and peaks in every variety of perspective, every hue of vista, fringe the view...so the whole Western world is, in a sense, but an expansion of these mountains.
Popular culture
In the South ParkSouth Park
South Park is an American animated television series created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone for the Comedy Central television network. Intended for mature audiences, the show has become famous for its crude language, surreal, satirical, and dark humor that lampoons a wide range of topics...
episode "The Return of the Fellowship of the Ring to the Two Towers" a sign for Kenosha Pass can be seen as the boys walk from South Park to Conifer to the video store. In the episode "Prehistoric Ice Man," a man who has been frozen since 1996 goes back to his wife, who says he was lost on Kenosha Pass.