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7ForewordThis soil survey contains information that affects land use planning in this surveyarea. It contains predictions of soil behavior for selected land uses. The survey alsohighlights soil limitations, improvements needed to overcome the limitations, and theimpact of selected land uses on the environment.This soil survey is designed for many different users. Farmers, ranchers, foresters,and agronomists can use it to evaluate the potential of the soil and the managementneeded for maximum food and fiber production. Planners, community officials,engineers, developers, builders, and home buyers can use the survey to plan landuse, select sites for construction, and identify special practices needed to ensureproper performance. Conservationists, teachers, students, and specialists inrecreation, wildlife management, waste disposal, and pollution control can use thesurvey to help them understand, protect, and enhance the environment.Various land use regulations of Federal, State, and local governments may imposespecial restrictions on land use or land treatment. The information in this report isintended to identify soil properties that are used in making various land use or landtreatment decisions. Statements made in this report are intended to help the landusers identify and reduce the effects of soil limitations on various land uses. Thelandowner or user is responsible for identifying and complying with existing laws andregulations.Great differences in soil properties can occur within short distances. Some soilsare seasonally wet or subject to flooding. Some are shallow to bedrock. Some are toounstable to be used as a foundation for buildings or roads. Clayey or wet soils arepoorly suited to use as septic tank absorption fields. A high water table makes a soilpoorly suited to basements or underground installations.These and many other soil properties that affect land use are described in this soilsurvey. Broad areas of soils are shown on the general soil map. The location of eachsoil is shown on the detailed soil maps. Each soil in the survey area is described.Information on specific uses is given for each soil. Help in using this publication andadditional information are available at the local office of the Natural ResourcesConservation Service or the Cooperative Extension Service.Allen GreenState ConservationistNatural Resources Conservation Service

8Soil Survey of Rocky MountainNational Park, ColoradoBy Lee A. NeveFieldwork by Dave Alstatt, Jim Borchert, Jodi Boyce, Lee A. Neve, Michael Petersen,Nathan Storck, Melissa Trenchik, and Tim Wheeler, Natural Resources ConservationService; and Steve Blecker, Colorado State University.United States Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation Service,in cooperation withUnited States Department of Interior, National Park Service; and Colorado StateUniversityGeneral Nature of the AreaRocky Mountain National Park is located in the north central part of Colorado(fig.1). It covers a total area of 266,200 acres: 142,500 acres in Larimer County,98,100 acres in Grand County, and 25,600 acres in Boulder County.Figure 1.—Location of Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado.

Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado9The Park has a wide range of vegetation types, climates, and elevations. The soilsof the Alpine Life Zone have a very short frost-free period (10 to 30 days), littlevegetation (dominantly Bellardi bog sedge, alpine bluegrass, avens, and tuftedhairgrass) or no vegetation on the Rock outcrop and Rubble land. This zone rangesfrom 10,000 to 13,460 feet in elevation and receives 30 to 40 inches of precipitationper year.The soils in the Subalpine Life Zone have a slightly longer frost-free period (10 to50 days) and support subalpine-fir, Engelmann’s spruce, grouse whortleberry, Rosssedge, elk sedge, and heartleaf arnica. The Subalpine Life Zone ranges from 9,000to 12,000 feet in elevation and receives 24 to 40 inches of precipitation per year.The soils of the Montane Life Zone have a frost-free period of 40 to 100 days. Thiszone supports lodgepole pine, Rocky Mountain Douglas-fir, Engelmann’s spruce, elksedge, common juniper, kinnikinnick, and fivepetal cliffbush. The Montane Life Zoneranges from 8,000 to 10,000 feet in elevation and receives 16 to 24 inches ofprecipitation per year.The soils of the Riparian Life Zone have a frost-free period of 40 to 75 days andsupport tufted hairgrass, water sedge, alpine timothy, diamondleaf willow, andgrayleaf willow. The Riparian Life Zone ranges from 8,000 to 10,700 feet in elevationand receives 18 to 40 inches of precipitation per year.The soils in Rocky Mountain National Park range widely in texture, depth, andother characteristics. Soils in the Alpine Life Zone formed in gravelly slope alluvium,or residuum, colluvium, or till derived from granite, gneiss, or schist, are shallow andvery deep, and are somewhat excessively drained. The soils in the Subalpine LifeZone formed in colluvium, till, slope alluvium, or residuum derived from granite,gneiss, or schist, are very deep and shallow, and are somewhat excessively drained.The soils in the Montane Life Zone formed in sandy and gravelly till and in gravellyslope alluvium derived from granite, gneiss, and schist, are very deep and shallow,and are somewhat excessively drained. The soils in the Riparian Life Zone formed inalluvium derived from granite, gneiss, and schist, are very deep, and are poorly ormoderately well drained.None of the soils in the Park are considered to be prime farmland.History of Rocky Mountain National ParkEarly InhabitantsDuring the Ice Age when massive glaciers were grinding the landscape, shapingthe meadows and peaks, the area that would become Rocky Mountain National Parkwas an inhospitable land. It was not until some 11,000 years ago that humans beganventuring into these valleys and mountains.Native PeoplesSpearheads broken in the fury of a mammoth’s charge and scrapers discardedalong a nomad’s trail tell us little about the area’s early native peoples. We do knowthat even though it was never their year-round home, the green valleys, tundrameadows, and crystal lakes became favored summer hunting grounds for the Utetribe. In setting up their camps, they made use of the straight and slender lodgepolepine as tepee poles. Until the late 1700s, the Ute Indian Tribe controlled the mountainterritories.Tepee rings and other signs of summer camps were still evident by the time thefirst settlers arrived, but few vestiges of those times remain today, other than the largeriver boulders that Native Americans carried to the top of Oldman Mountain, a site oftheir ceremonial vision quests.

10Soil SurveyEarly Explorers and SettlersThe United States acquired the Park’s original 358.5 square miles in the hugeLouisiana Purchase of 1803. French trappers and the Spanish explorers before themseem to have skirted the current park boundaries in their wilderness forays. EvenMajor Stephen H. Long and his expedition forces avoided these rugged barricades in1820. Long was never closer than 40 miles to the peak named for him.Published in 1843, Scenes in the Rocky Mountains described the explorations ofRufus Sage from Connecticut. It was the first account of the area’s wonders to reachincredulous easterners. Sage spent four years roaming the Rockies, basing hisexplorations from Fort Lupton, north of present-day Denver. For a month, Sagehunted deer in the area now known as Estes Park.The first settler in the area was Joel Estes, a Kentuckian. Scouting for game onefall, he and his son climbed a high promontory that gave them a view of abreathtakingly beautiful valley. In 1860, Estes moved his family into a new home inthe area now known as Estes Park.Winters proved too harsh for cattle, so six years later the Estes family sold out fora yoke of oxen. The Estes cabin was soon converted into guest accommodations,and beginning in 1867 the number of visitors to this area grew steadily.A Mountain MeccaThe Rockies continued to attract the adventurous, including the great explorerJohn Wesley Powell, who conquered the summit of Longs Peak in 1868. Just fiveyears later, Anna Dickinson became the first woman to succeed in the climb.Isabella Bird, an Englishwoman whose extensive travels and writings earned herthe first female membership in the Royal Geographic Society, visited Estes Park inthe fall of 1873. Bird’s book, A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains, attracted manypeople to the area, as did Frederick Chapin’s Mountaineering in Colorado.While much of the West was attracting homesteaders, the Rockies were alsobecoming established as a tourist mecca. By 1874, a stage line ran between EstesPark and Longmont by way of North Saint Vrain Canyon. About that time, an Englishearl, Lord Dunraven, arrived and laid questionable claim to 15,000 acres as hisprivate game preserve. He also built the fine Estes Park Hotel.Miners and HomesteadersBecause large veins of silver and gold had been discovered in other areas of theRockies, miners considered the area a land of opportunity and came in droves duringColorado’s gold rush of the late 1870s. Lulu City, in what is now the northwest part ofRocky Mountain National Park, was a booming mining town in 1880 with a raucousreputation. Three years later, it was nearly deserted because the region’s mineralriches were far less than the miners dreamed.When the miners and first settlers arrived, there seemed no end to the supply ofgame. Bear, deer, wolves, and elk were abundant. To feed the boom town demand,commercial hunters went to work: a single hunter could deliver a weekly supply ofthree tons of assorted big-game meat.The rousing boom times yielded to an industrious homesteading period. Ranchersand farmers felt that the real wealth of the Rockies lay in its water. They fought overrights to it (finally running the Earl of Dunraven out of town) and built ambitiouscanal systems to transfer water from the wetter western slopes to the drier easternplains. The Grand Ditch in the Never Summer Range in the Park intercepted thestream source of the Colorado River and diverted it for use for cattle and crops.Though homesteading proved no more profitable than mining in this land, anotherenterprise showed promise: dude ranches began attracting city dwellers in quest ofan original adventure.

Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado11Protecting the RockiesIn 1903, F.O. Stanley, inventor of the Stanley Steamer automobile, came to EstesPark, Colorado for his health. Impressed by the beauty of the valley and grateful forthe improvement in his health, he decided to invest his money and his future there. In1909, he opened the elegant Stanley Hotel, a classic inn exemplifying the golden

This map is useful in planning the use and management of large areas. To find information about your area of interest, locate that area on the map, identify the name of the map unit in the area on the color-coded map legend, then refer to the section General Soil Map Units for a general