The Lariat Loop

by Sandy Fails

On the trail of dinosaurs, wagon trains and Model Ts

A popular 1920s auto-touring route, the Lariat Loop is being rediscovered for its cultural, natural and historic riches.

     Jaunty Roadsters and Model Ts purred their way up the dramatic Lookout Mountain switchbacks, chasing adventure on a crystalline Colorado day. The scene could have been from any summer Sunday in the 1920s, when hordes of proud new motorists hit the Lariat Trail Scenic Mountain Drive, one of the nation's first and most popular car-touring routes.

     This day, however, was June 16, 2001. Penny Pence, zipping by in her sleek red Miata, smiled to see a 1920s Ford Hiboy Coupe parked at the stately old Astor House; they looked like two gracefully aging friends reunited after many decades.

     Pence didn't linger, though. She had 17 pages of clues to ponder before the finish line of the first annual Lariat Loop Heritage Alliance Road Rally. She still had to lasso a steer-horned chair at the Hiwan Homestead, calculate the square root of the population of Morrison and spend exactly $1.72 at the old Foss Drugstore.

     Pence admittedly had a home-field advantage in the Lariat Loop road rally. Raised in Lakewood, she spent childhood summers at the family cabin overlooking Evergreen Lake. As an adult, she lived for 15 years in Evergreen, worked for the Evergreen Area Chamber of Commerce and devoured local history. From bicycling the 40-mile Lariat Loop, she knew it intimately: alpenglow on the ragged Hogback formation, breathtaking views from the switchbacks, museums reminding her that here dinosaurs had left three-toed tracks as big as her bike tire and, 150 million years later, wagons had carried settlers to the untamed West.

     The road rally, though, opened Pence's eyes even wider. With two dozen other drivers of both antique and modern cars, she was celebrating the rediscovery of an amazing resource.

     The Lariat Loop combines two historic routes: the Lariat Trail and Bear Creek Canyon scenic mountain drives. The loop, anchored by the communities of Evergreen, Morrison and Golden, offers far more than natural beauty. It boasts a startling concentration of cultural, natural and historic landmarks. Buffalo Bill's grave and museum, Colorado's sixth most popular tourist draw, might hog the limelight, but the route also incorporates nature centers, a renewable energy lab, an art center, a spiritual shrine, the shimmering waters of Evergreen Lake, and museums and historical sites exploring everything from dinosaurs to trains to Native Americans. The route also loops by Red Rocks, an outdoor amphitheater built into grand 300-million-year-old sandstone formations and rocked in more recent times by such performers as the Moody Blues and U2.

     "There's so much diversity in such a short distance," said Cynthia Pougiales of the Lariat Loop Heritage Alliance. "The concentration and uniqueness of the resources along the loop are tremendous, and most people don't even know about it all."

     Almost a century ago, in the dawning era of the automobile, Denver visionaries created a vast mountain park system of wild lands within driving distance of the city. Scenic roads were then built to access the parks. In the 1920s and '30s, the Lariat Trail and Bear Creek Canyon scenic mountain drives lured thousands of motorists, lined up "like flies on a string," one tourist wrote. The Lariat Trial, with its perfectly-banked mountainside switchbacks, was hailed as "the most scenic road in America" and one of the great engineering feats of the times.

     Today, the Lariat Loop Heritage Alliance, formed in 1998, is revitalizing interest in the loop's cultural and natural riches. The alliance gained heritage area designation by the Colorado Heritage Area Partnership in 2000 and has created a website and brochure, recruited a state folklorist to collect old stories, and started developing signs and interpretive materials for the loop. The alliance also hopes to create an audio taped guide, gain Scenic Byway designation and educate local residents about the wonders in their backyard.

     As part of that campaign, the alliance will host its second annual Lariat Loop Road Rally on June 22, 2002. As with last year's race, organizer Angela Rayne and the alliance partners will compile a series of "clues and do's" to engage both brain and funny bone. What does "Genesee" mean in the Ute language? What is the elevation of Morrison in millimeters? What bribe would best sway the judge? Prizes will range from impressive to funny, like last year's award for the "most lost" driver: a Mother Cabrini Shrine angel visor with an inscription invoking God's guidance on the driver's next journey.

     For information on the rally, call Angela Rayne, curator at the Hiwan Homestead, vintage Chevy owner and road rally veteran (303-674-6262). But don't ask about this year's route, a heavily guarded secret known only by Rayne and her husband.

     The Lariat Loop road rally is not a race; last year Penny Pence brought up the rear across the finish line but took first place for completing the most questions and tasks. She also found richer rewards that day. She got to watch people discovering the Lariat Loop's many wonders and even unearthed a few surprises herself.

     "The rally got people to appreciate what all is there, what a wonderful heritage we have," she said. "Even I didn't realize the full scope of it."