Audio Postcard From The Parks: The Shadow Mountain Lookout

By Kurt Repanshek - August 10th, 2022

On the west side of Rocky Mountain National Park, where the Colorado River drains out of Shadow Mountain Lake and heads down a short course to fill Lake Granby, is a path that leads to the shoulder of Shadow Mountain. There, in an opening in the piney forest, stands a fire lookout built in the 1930s.

The Shadow Mountain Lookout is the only lookout remaining in Rocky Mountain National Park. To reach it you face a 10-mile roundtrip hike, a hike that climbs more than 1,500 feet in elevation. During a recent visit to Rocky Mountain I followed the trail to the lookout, where I ran into Barbara and John Varian and discussed both the hike and the lookout with them.

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Rocky Mountain National Park

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