The Serpents Trail, also known as the Trail of the Serpents and the Serpentine Trail, is a trail within the

Colorado National Monument Colorado National Monument is a National Park Service unit near the city of Grand Junction, Colorado. Sheer-walled canyons cut deep into sandstone and granite–gneiss–schist rock formations. This is an area of desert land high on the Colorado ...

Mesa County Mesa County is a county located in the U.S. state of Colorado. As of the 2020 census, the population was 155,703, making it the most populous county in western Colorado, and 11th most populous in the state. The county seat and most populous mu ...

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

, United States, that is listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

Description

The trail was built by the visionary John Otto, who began the campaign to establish the national monument. The trail was, in fact, a road from Grand Junction through No Thoroughfare Canyon to the

rimrock Rimrock is the sheer rock wall at the upper edge of a plateau, canyon, or geological uplift. It may refer to either the rock formation or to the rock itself. Rimrock may be composed of almost any stone—basalt, gneiss, granite, sandstone, et ...

near Cold Shivers Point, with an elevation gain of nearly over . From Cold Shivers Point the road proceeded at a gentler grade for to Glade Park. Otto began his survey in 1911 with the help of civil engineer J.F. Sleeper. Otto's grand plan was to link Grand Junction to

Moab Moab () was an ancient Levant, Levantine kingdom whose territory is today located in southern Jordan. The land is mountainous and lies alongside much of the eastern shore of the Dead Sea. The existence of the Kingdom of Moab is attested to by ...

Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

by a scenic road to be part of a transcontinental road system. Construction began in 1912 and continued sporadically to 1921, when Mesa County took the project over. Engineer J.B. Claybaugh completed the project in 1924. The construction of the Rim Rock Drive destroyed portions of the Serpents Trail. A portion has been preserved as a hiking trail. During the 1930s the Park Service considered upgrading the trail to a higher standard of road, but dropped the project. Only the relatively gentle upper section of the trail was incorporated into Rim Rock Drive in 1939–40. The trail was added to the National Register of Historic Places April 21, 1994

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External links

* * at the National Park Service's NRHP database Park buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Colorado National Register of Historic Places in Colorado National Monument Transportation in Mesa County, Colorado Hiking trails in Colorado Protected areas of Mesa County, Colorado Historic American Engineering Record in Colorado 1921 establishments in Colorado {{Colorado-NRHP-stub

Description

See also

References

External links