Cameron Pass (elevation ) is a

mountain pass A mountain pass is a navigable route through a mountain range or over a ridge. Since many of the world's mountain ranges have presented formidable barriers to travel, passes have played a key role in trade, war, and both Human migration, human a ...

in north-central

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the wes ...

in the Rocky Mountains of the western United States. The pass is a gap between the south end of the

Medicine Bow Mountains The Medicine Bow Mountains are a mountain range in the Rocky Mountains that extend from northern Colorado into southern Wyoming. The northern extent of this range is the sub-range the Snowy Range. From the northern end of Colorado's Never Summer ...

and the north end of the Never Summer Mountains. It sits on the border between Jackson County and

Larimer County Larimer County is a county located in the U.S. state of Colorado. As of the 2020 census, the population was 359,066. The county seat and most populous city is Fort Collins. The county was named for William Larimer, Jr., the founder of Den ...

, approximately 3 mi (5 km) north of the boundary of

Rocky Mountain National Park Rocky Mountain National Park is an American national park located approximately northwest of Denver in north-central Colorado, within the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains. The park is situated between the towns of Estes Park to the east and ...

. The pass provides the most convenient route between

Fort Collins A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facer ...

and Walden in North Park, using State Highway 14. The pass was named for Robert Cameron, the founder of the

Fort Collins Agricultural Colony The Fort Collins Agricultural Colony was a 19th-century enterprise in Larimer County, Colorado to promote new agricultural and commercial settlement in and around the town of Fort Collins. Founded in the autumn of 1872 as an outgrowth of the Unio ...

and former Union general, in 1870. The pass was surveyed several times for railroads, including once by the Union Pacific Railroad as a possible route for a line through the Rockies. However, no railroad was ever built over the pass. The pass is located at the boundary of the Roosevelt National Forest and the Colorado State Forest State Park. Parking lots on the east and west sides of the pass, as well as at the summit allow access to nearby trails that are popular both for hiking in the summer and cross-country skiing in the winter. The pass receives much snow during the winter months and is prone to avalanches, but it usually remains open all-year round. The pass has a mild approach from the West where the road rises out of the broad Winter Park area, and is steep from the East where the road climbs from

up the narrow Poudre River valley. The pass is drained on the north side by a tributary of the Cache la Poudre River, Joe Wright Creek, in the basin of the South Platte River. It is drained on the south side by the

Michigan River The Michigan River is a tributary of the North Platte River, approximately long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed March 21, 2011 in north central Colorado in the United S ...

, a tributary of the North Platte River in North Park.

References

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External links

Local Backcountry AdvocacyCAIC Avalanche ForecastSNOTEL - Joe WrightSNOTEL - Never Summer
Mountain passes of Colorado Landforms of Larimer County, Colorado Landforms of Jackson County, Colorado Transportation in Larimer County, Colorado Transportation in Jackson County, Colorado