Audio Excerpt

Welcome to Clear Creek County!  The creek the county is named after runs from the continental divide, which if you close your eyes and picture…NOT YOU DRIVER!! … whoa.. That was close.. Sheesh.. Anyways… the continental divide is a really long line of mountains that runs all the way from Alaska, right through where we are now, down to the Southern tip of South America! All rivers and creeks West of the divide flow into the Pacific ocean while the water East flows into the Atlantic!

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 Pike National Forest, 60 miles to the South East of here, is 1 of 4 National Protected areas within Clear Creek County.  The forest contains an area with amazing rock formations called ‘Garden of the Gods’. How did it get that name? Well, allow me to set the stage.. Two land surveyors in 1859 stumble across the rock formations.. The following is their conversation.. (clears throat)..

 

“Hey Rufus, wouldn’t this be a capital place for a beer garden!?”

 

“Beer Garden!?? Why it is a fit place for the gods to assemble.. We will call it.. …... Garden of the Gods!!”  

 

And that my friends, is how Rufus named Garden of the Gods!

 

Clear Creek County is also home to 4 scenic trails, the Continental Divide National Scenic trail, Grays Peak & Mount Evans National Recreation Trails and The American Discovery Trail.  Think you can guess what direction the American Discovery Trail runs?Is it,

 

A - East / West, B - Diagonally, or C - North / South?

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If you answered A, East / West, you must really know your trails! The coast to coast trail is an incredible 6,800 miles long and passes through 14 national parks, 16 national forests and sadly for this overpriced caffeine addict, zero Starbucks...