The Twin Sisters Peaks are mountains in
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 ...
, located in the
Front Range
The Front Range is a mountain range of the Southern Rocky Mountains of North America located in the central portion of the U.S. State of Colorado, and southeastern portion of the U.S. State of Wyoming. It is the first mountain range encounter ...
in
Larimer County, Colorado
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 Denve ...
, straddling
Rocky Mountain National Park
Rocky Mountain National Park is a List of national parks of the United States, national park of the United States located approximately northwest of Denver in north-central Colorado, within the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains. The park is s ...
and
Roosevelt National Forest
The Roosevelt National Forest is a National Forest located in north central Colorado. It is contiguous with the Colorado State Forest as well as the Arapaho National Forest and the Routt National Forest. The forest is administered jointly w ...
.
History
The mountain was originally known amongst Estes Park locals as Lily Mountain until the name Twin Sisters Peaks was submitted to the Washington Geographic Board on March 7, 1907 by Ellsworth Bethel. The first trail to the summit was constructed in 1914, at the same time the first fire lookout was established at the top by the Forest Service. In 1917, the mountain was officially made part of Rocky Mountain National Park's eastern boundary. Swiss mountaineer Walter Kiener was the first RMNP ranger to operate the fire lookout, serving in this position for five summers. Kiener's presence on the mountain increased visitor traffic and helped to popularize the hike with tourists. In 1936, the trail was reconstructed by the
Civilian Conservation Corps
The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a voluntary government unemployment, work relief program that ran from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men ages 18–25 and eventually expanded to ages 17–28. The CCC was ...
. The ranger station was later razed in 1977, although its remains are still visible on the summit.
During the Colorado front range floods of 2013, the western side of the mountain experienced a large mudslide, which left a large muddy scar and wiped out several switchbacks of the trail. The trail was later re-defined within the scar to allow hiking to resume, but the damage is still visible from afar.
Historical names
*Lillie Mountain
*Lillie Mountains
*Tahosa Mountain
*Twin Sisters Peaks – 1908
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]
See also
* List of Colorado mountain ranges
* List of Colorado mountain summits
**List of Colorado fourteeners
This is a list of mountain peaks in the U.S. State of Colorado that exceed of elevation.
In the mountaineering parlance of the Western United States, a ''fourteener'' is a mountain peak with an elevation of at least 14,000 feet. This is a co ...
** List of Colorado 4000 meter prominent summits
**List of the most prominent summits of Colorado
The following sortable table comprises the 100 most topographically prominent mountain peaks of the U.S. State of Colorado.
Topographic elevation is the vertical distance above the reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea le ...
*List of Colorado county high points
This is a list of the 64 counties of the U.S. State of Colorado by their points of highest elevation. Of the 50 highest county high points in the United States, 30 are located in Colorado. The highest point in Colorado and the Rocky Mountai ...
References
External links
Mountains of Rocky Mountain National Park
Mountains of Larimer County, Colorado
Three-thousanders of the United States
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