From: The Shattucks of South Elk Creek, David P Nelson, 2008. Winner Adult Long Essay, Historically Jeffco Magazine.

"...History along South Elk Creek is rooted in the emergence of Pine where the North Fork of the South Platte collects its waters. The laying of track for Denver, South Park & Pacific Railroad brought about great changes, spurring activity in logging, ranching, and mining. The first ventures into South Elk Creek occurred from the bottom up, not down from Shaffers Crossing. From that direction, a road was roughed out along the creek, with little more width than to allow passage for one horse drawn wagon. Quite often rocks and boulders fell from above to block the way.

Within a mile of the base of the canyon, and continuing for another three miles, they encountered massive formations of red granite towering skyward. What they saw brought to mind the great pyramids of Egypt. Sphinx Park now draws experienced rock climbers and others seeking a glimpse of this wonder in nature. ..."

Mark can you get a better scan of this? Its interesting. We have a couple of fun histories of Glen Elk that do a great job of describing the canyon at the turn of the century. I'll have to show them to you sometime.

Allen, it looks like this print is about as good as I can get it. I'll put another vantage up also under Fair Use to show how almost timeless this area is.