National Trails Day is an annual event that takes place on the 1st Saturday of June. This date was established back in 1993 by The American Hiking Society, a non profit organization. Their mission is to bring awareness to the many trails all over the USA and to promote public service participation to maintain and clean up trails in local communities. Trails are not just for hikers. They are used by runners, horseback riders, cross country skiers, bicyclists and dirt bike riders just to name a few. Trails provide access to waterways for fishing, kayaking and canoeing.
On a trip to Colorado in 2014 Peter visited Garden of the Gods Park. Garden of the Gods is 1,300 acres of massive sandstone formations located at the foot of Pikes Peak on the west side of Colorado Springs. The park is a registered Natural National Landmark and has many hiking trails and a visitor center that hosts 2 million visitors a year. For over 3,000 years Native Americans considered the region a neutral sacred ground and a hub for trade between nomadic tribes. The Ute’s tribe was native to the area and used it as their home during the winter months. The area received its official name back in 1859 when two railroad land surveyors, Metancthon Beach and Rufus Cable, first came upon these towering fins of jagged rock jutting over 300 feet in the air. They were scouting out land for what would be the town of Old Colorado City. The story goes that Beach exclaimed” This would be a capital place for a beer garden.” Cable replied “Beer garden! Why, this place is fit for the gods to assemble.”
In 1878 Professor James Kerr found a dinosaur skeleton in what would become the park area. The dinosaur was named Theiophytalia Kerri. Theios in the Greek language means “belonging to the Gods” and phytalia means “garden.”
In1879 railroad mogul Charles Perkins bought the portion of the land that contained the majority of the unusual formations. In 1909, two years after his passing, his family deeded the property to the city of Colorado Springs with the stipulation that the park would always remain “forever free” to the public.
Just like Charles Perkins there are people in your own community who advocate for the preservation of public land, spaces and trails. In our small community two local residents develop a program called “Nick’s Interns”. The program was established after their son Nick passed away in a tragic car accident. Nick was a person who grew up loving the great outdoors and had spent much of his high school and college years working outdoor jobs. “Nick’s Interns” employs teenagers to work outdoors in a conservation program that provides trail restoration, stream clean up, invasive plant species removal and more. The program also trains the participants for future opportunities in the field of environmental conservation management.
I will leave you with a quote from Edward Abbey “May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds.”