A Canyon I Ignored for 20 Years — Mapped Before Colorado Was a State

Last Saturday I woke up with no real plan. By 10 a.m. the bag was half packed. By 1:30 I was on a bike, 30 pounds on my back, heading into a canyon I somehow hadn't explored in 20 years of living here. What I found was a landscape still organized around a volcanic system that went quiet 30 million years ago. And a map drawn by a geologist on horseback in 1874, two years before Colorado was even a state. This video follows one overnight into the West Elk Mountains of Colorado. A deeply eroded volcanic complex covering roughly 618 square miles, about the size of the island of Kauai. Using an original 1870s Hayden Survey map as a base, I trace the drainage networks and radial structure of the field. A landscape that rewards anyone willing to slow down and look closely. Albert Charles Peale mapped this system as part of the Hayden Geological Survey of 1874. Standing somewhere in this same landscape, he described the breccia as being "eroded in the most fantastic fashion. Huge castle-like forms, abrupt walls, spires and towers." 150 years later, riding through the same volcanic field, it's hard to argue with him. The canyon also happens to be full of life. Elk grazing in open meadows. A grouse convinced it was invisible. Deer moving through the timber. Creek sounds, birdsong, and a coyote at 1:30 in the morning that reminded me exactly how far out I was. Not everything went according to plan. I brought the wrong sleeping pad. It hit 20 degrees. The creek humbled me. If this is your kind of thing, subscribe. More investigations coming. — CHAPTERS — 00:00 Introduction 00:40 A Last Minute Decision 01:05 Riding My Bike Into the Canyon 01:51 In Awe of the Spires 02:56 What the Map Reveals 05:11 Albert Charles Peale & the Hayden Survey Crew 05:51 Peale's Spires: 150 Years Later 06:10 Into Camp 07:38 Starry Night 08:09 Sleeping On Just "Air" 09:14 Wildlife Hike 11:07 The Creek Freeze — GEOLOGY MAP REFERENCE — Peale, A.C., 1874, Geologic map of the West Elk Mountains and vicinity, in Hayden, F.V., 1876, Eighth Annual Report of the United States Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories: U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington D.C. [public domain — available via Internet Archive] — HISTORICAL PHOTOGRAPHS — All historical photographs courtesy USGS Library Photographic Collection and Smithsonian Institution Archives. Full citations below: Hayden Survey Group, Yellowstone, 1872 — Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 7177, Image No. SIA2018-111380 https://siarchives.si.edu/collections... F.V. Hayden on horseback, 1870 — USGS Library Photographic Collection, Neg. No. HS-1119 https://library.usgs.gov/photo/index.... Camp scene with Dr. Peale, 1871 — USGS Photographic Collection, Library ID: jwh00500 https://library.usgs.gov/photo/index.... W.H. Holmes field sketch, Summit of Mt. Evans, 1873 — USGS Photographic Collection, Library ID: 82230001 https://library.usgs.gov/photo/index.... F.V. Hayden, Colorado, 1874 — USGS Photographic Collection, Library ID: jwh01119 https://library.usgs.gov/photo/index.... Hayden Survey Party, Colorado, 1874 — Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 7177, Image No. SIA2013-01165 https://siarchives.si.edu/collections... A.C. Peale near wagon, Tongue River, 1897 — USGS Photographic Collection, Library ID: wcd00472 https://library.usgs.gov/photo/index....