01/05/2026
BERTHOUD PASS, 1887. View from JUST on the *other* side of the pass looking north. That's Parry Peak on the skyline (commonly and erroneously called "Bearclaw" by some folks) for perspective. Probably all of you have topped this pass coming in this direction and taken in that view of the upper Valley and the mountain stretching northward. For many of us, it means you're home, even if you don't live there anymore. For others it means you're away from home and about to have a really good time sniffing wildflowers or paying a whole bunch of money to ski. When this photo was taken, there was a rest stop at the top, as shown here, run by Captain Lewis Dewitt Clinton Gaskill, a Civil War veteran from upstate New York who had come west during one of the mining booms and founded the "Georgetown, Empire and Middle Park Wagon Road", the precursor to the modern highway up and over Berthoud Pass. He and his family actually lived in the house shown here for many years, providing shelter and collecting the tolls from passing wagons. Look closely and you can see a freight wagon parked at the top of the pass. The road was closed during the winter, which meant sometime in October to sometime in early June, although mail and some supplies would still cross the pass during the winter via a VERY bad ass mail carrier, William Kimball, who crossed the pass at least weekly on snowshoes.
