The Estes Park region became famous for its scenery during the height of the Rocky Mountain gold-fever half a century ago. While Colorado was still a Territory, its scenes were visited by Helen Hunt, Anna Dickinson, and Isabella Bird, all of whom sang the praises of this great hanging wild garden. The park is a natural one,--a mingling of meadows, headlands, groves, winding streams deeply set in high mountains whose forested steeps and snowy, broken tops stand high and bold above its romantic loveliness. It is a marvelous grouping of gentleness and grandeur; an eloquent, wordless hymn, that is sung in silent, poetic pictures; a sublime garden miles in extent and all arranged with infinite care. Grace Greenwood once declared that the skyline of this region, when seen from out in the Great Plains, loomed up like the Alps from the plains of Lombardy. Long's Peak, "King of the Rocky Mountains," dominates these scenes. Around this peak, within a radius of fifteen miles, is a striking and composite grouping of the best features of the Rocky Mountain scenery. Again and again I have explored every nook and height of this scenic mountain wilderness, enjoying its forests, lakes, and cañons during every month of the year. Frost and fire have had much to do with its lines and landscapes. Ice has wrought bold sculptures, while fire made the graceful open gardens, forest-framed and flower-filled in the sun. The region was occupied by the Ice King during the last glacial period. Many rounded peaks, U-shaped, polished gorges, enormous morainal embankments, upwards of fifty lakes and tarns--almost the entire present striking landscape--were shaped through the ages by the slow sculpturing of the ice. Forest fires have made marked changes, and many of the wide poetic places--the grassy parks--in the woods are largely due to severe and repeated burnings. [Illustration: LONG'S PEAK AND ESTES PARK]