The Serpents Trail in Colorado National Monument

Colorado National Monument

- Trails :The Monument contains many hiking trails, with lengths and difficulties to suit all tastes. Summer storms can cause flash floods as well as dangerous trail conditions. Rattlesnakes are found on the Monument, and rough terrain exists everywhere, but most trails are well-maintained...

, also known as the Trail of the Serpents and the Serpentine Trail, was built by the visionary John Otto

John Otto (park ranger)

John Otto was the first park custodian at Colorado National Monument, and had been a key advocate for its creation and its later inclusion in the National Park Service....

, who began the campaign to establish the national monument. The trail was, in fact, a road from Grand Junction, Colorado

Grand Junction, Colorado

The City of Grand Junction is the largest city in western Colorado. It is a city with a council–manager government form that is the county seat and the most populous city of Mesa County, Colorado, United States. Grand Junction is situated west-southwest of the Colorado State Capitol in Denver. As...

 through No Thoroughfare Canyon to the rimrock

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, etc.—and is frequently layered. Many times it...

 near Cold Shivers Point, with an elevation gain of nearly 1100 feet over 2.5 miles. From Cold Shivers Point the road proceeded at a gentler grade for four miles to Glade Park

Glade Park, Colorado

Glade Park is an unincorporated town and a U.S. Post Office located in Mesa County, Colorado, United States. The Glade Park Post Office has the ZIP Code 81523.-Geography:...

. 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, Utah

Moab, Utah

Moab is a city in Grand County, in eastern Utah, in the western United States. The population was 4,779 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat and largest city in Grand County. Moab hosts a large number of tourists every year, mostly visitors to the nearby Arches and Canyonlands National Parks...

 by a scenic road to be part of a transcontinental road system. Construction began in 1912 and continued sporadically to 1921, when Mesa County

Mesa County, Colorado

Mesa County is the fourth most extensive and the eleventh most populous of the 64 counties of the state of Colorado in the United States. The county was named for the many large mesas in the area, including Grand Mesa. The county population was 146,723 at the 2010 United States Census. The...

 took the project over. Engineer J.B. Clabaugh completed the project in 1924.

The construction of the Rim Rock Drive

Rim Rock Drive

Rim Rock Drive is a scenic road in Colorado National Monument. The 23-mile 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 only eight miles apart in a straight line...

 destroyed portions of the Serpents Trail. A 1.6 mile portion has been preserved as a hiking trail. During the 1930's 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 1939-40.

External links

• Trail of the Serpent, .4 miles from East Entrance, Grand Junction vicinity, Mesa County, CO: 9 photos, 2 data pages, 1 photo caption page, at Historic American Building Survey
• Photographs of the Serpent's Trail at the National Park Service's NRHP database