Cave of the winds Mountains park – A Brief History of the Cave of the Winds Mountain Park
The Cave of the Winds Mountain Park is located in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. The park is home to a variety of different caves and rock formations. The most popular attraction in the park is the Cave of the Winds, which is a series of caverns and tunnels that were formed by an ancient lava flow. Visitors to the park can take guided tours of the cave, and there are also a number of hiking trails.
The history of the Cave of the Winds Mountain Park dates back millions of years ago to when the Rocky Mountains were first formed. The area that is now the park was once covered by a vast ocean. Over time, the ocean receded and was replaced by a desert. The desert was eventually covered by an inland sea, and then that sea receded as well. This cycle continued for millions of years, with the landscape changing each time. eventually, a volcanogenic hot spot formed underneath what is now Yellowstone National Park. This hot spot caused a large lava flow that traveled all the way to what is now Colorado.
The lava flow that created the cave began to cool and harden as it reached Colorado. However, pockets of molten lava remained beneath the surface. These pockets slowly cooled over time, and they resulted in the formation of caverns and tunnels. The cave system that we see today began to take shape around 2 million years ago.
The first humans to set foot in the cave were Native Americans who used it as a shelter from bad weather. They also used it as a place to hunt animals that had taken refuge from predators in the cave system. In 1869, two prospectors discovered fossilized bones while they were exploring one of the caves. These bones belonged to an extinct species of mammal known as Megatoma shastensis, which lived in North America during the Miocene epoch (23-5 million years ago).
In 1874, a man named John George Herbert Fraser explored another one of the caves and discovered something that he thought was a petrified human handprint on one of the walls. He later learned that it was actually a handprint made by Native Americans who had been using red ocher pigment to create pictographs in the cave. In 1882, President Ulysses S Grant made Cave of the Winds Mountain Park into a National Monument. It wasn't until 1908 that it became a National Park.
Cave of the Winds Mountain Park is a unique place with a long and fascinating history. If you find yourself in Colorado, be sure to check it out!
