Colorado has one thousand peaks that rise more than two miles into the
sky. About one hundred and fifty of these reach up beyond thirteen
thousand feet in altitude. There are more than twice as many peaks of
fourteen thousand feet in Colorado as in all the other States of the
Union. An enormous area is entirely above the limits of tree-growth;
but these heights above the timber-line are far from being barren and
lifeless. Covering these mountains with robes of beauty are forests,
lakes, meadows, brilliant flowers, moorlands, and vine-like streams
that cling to the very summits. This entire mountain realm is
delightfully rich in plant and animal life, from the lowest meadows to
the summits of the highest peaks.
Each year the State is colored with more than three thousand varieties
of wild flowers, cheered by more than four hundred species of birds,
and enlivened with a numerous array of other wild life. Well has it
been called the "Playground of America." It is an enormous and
splendid hanging wild garden.
This mountain State of the Union has always appealed to the
imagination and has called forth many graphic expressions. Thus
Colorado sought statehood from Congress under the name of
Tahosa,--"Dwellers of the Mountain-Tops." Even more of poetic
suggestiveness has the name given by an invading Indian tribe to the
Arapahoes of the Continental Divide,--"Men of the Blue Sky."
I have visited on foot every part of Colorado and have made scores of
happy excursions through these mountains. These outings were in every
season of the year and they brought me into contact with the wild life
of the heights in every kind of weather. High peaks by the score have
been climbed and hundreds of miles covered on snowshoes. I have even
followed the trail by night, and by moonlight have enjoyed the solemn
forests, the silent lakes, the white cascades, and the summits of the
high peaks.
The greater part of this book deals with nature and with my own
experiences in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. Some of the chapters
in slightly different form have been printed in various publications.
The _Saturday Evening Post_ published "The Grizzly Bear," "Wild Folk
of the Mountain-Summits," "Wild Mountain Sheep," "Associating with
Snow-Slides," "The Forest Frontier," "Bringing back the Forest," and
"Going to the Top." _Country Life in America_ published "A Mountain
Pony"; _The Youth's Companion_, "Some Forest History"; _Recreation_,
"Drought in Beaver World"; and _Our Dumb Animals_, "My Chipmunk
Callers." The editors of these publications have kindly consented to
the publishing of these papers in this volume.
E. A. M.
LONG'S PEAK, ESTES PARK, COLORADO,
January, 1915.