Earth Day, Bigfoot Days This Weekend, and the People Who Made Sure This Valley Stayed What It Is

Enos Mills, Estes Park, circa 1890. He was never alone up there. Most people just did not look carefully enough.

BEFORE THE COFFEE GETS COLD

Yesterday was Earth Day. April is Earth Month. Moe stopped by and asked how I was celebrating.

I told him I was sitting on my porch looking at the same mountains that have been there for five million years and thinking about the people who made sure nobody could buy them.

He said that counted.

There is a version of Earth Day that involves hashtags and corporate emails about sustainability. That version does not particularly interest Buck. But there is another version. The one where a skinny fourteen-year-old named Enos Mills arrived alone in Estes Park in 1884, met John Muir five years later on a camping trip in California, and came home and spent the next twenty-six years making sure this valley stayed exactly what it was.

That version is worth ten minutes of your morning.

Bigfoot Days is also this weekend. Good luck on your search.

SIT DOWN. THIS ONE'S GOOD.

The Kid Who Saved the Park

How a teenage naturalist, a dying inventor, and a British adventurer made Rocky Mountain National Park happen before anyone called it Earth Day

Rocky Mountain National Park was not inevitable.

Enos Mills first arrived in Estes Park at age 14. He spent 26 years campaigning for Rocky Mountain National Park before it was signed into law. In what year did he meet John Muir,

and what did Muir tell him?

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Bigfoot Days is this weekend and it is bigger than most people expect when they hear the name.

This is not one event. It is a full weekend spread across Bond Park, the Historic Park Theatre, Town Hall, and the Estes Park Events Complex, with something happening at nearly every hour on Saturday. Here is how to think about it.

If you want the full festival experience, Bond Park is your home base on Saturday, April 25 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Free admission. Live music from Tumble Down Shack in the morning and Stepmother Nature in the afternoon. Food vendors, craft vendors, axe throwing, inflatable games, and the Bigfoot Calling Contest at 12:30 p.m. — which is exactly what it sounds like and worth showing up for even if only to observe the commitment of the participants.

If you want to hear from people who actually go looking for this thing, the celebrity talks are spread across Town Hall and the Park Theatre throughout the day. Bryce Johnson from Expedition Bigfoot opens at 10:30 a.m. Dr. Mireya Mayor speaks at 1:00 p.m. Biko Wright, who has also survived alone in the wilderness on the show Alone, closes out at 2:15 p.m. These are not people performing for a crowd. They have spent real time in real wilderness looking for something nobody has caught yet. Worth an hour of your afternoon.

If you want the film experience, the Historic Park Theatre is running two screenings. The High Strangeness of Colorado's Bigfoot screens at 3:00 p.m. The evening closes with the Hollywood-style red carpet premiere of Squatch at 7:00 p.m., complete with a comedian set, cast Q&A, poster giveaway, and free admission.

If you want to earn your beer, the Bigfoot Half Marathon and 5K runs Saturday morning and finishes right at the festival in Bond Park. Lumpy Ridge Brewing hands you a beer at the finish line. Register at runningwildevents.com.

Friday, April 24 kicks off the whole weekend with the Bigfoot BBQ at the Estes Park Events Complex. Ticketed dinner with celebrity guests, food, drinks, and music. Limited spots remaining at eventsinestes.com/bigfoot-days.

Moe said he plans to attend the celebrity talks and skip the Calling Contest. He did not want to be responsible for whatever answered.

More information at eventsinestes.com/bigfoot-days or call 970-577-3905.

DID YOU KNOW? 

Enos Mills wrote 16 books about the Colorado Rockies during his 26-year campaign for Rocky Mountain National Park. He gave thousands of lectures, lobbied Congress, and made enemies along the way. He was present when President Wilson signed the park into law in 1915. He died seven years later at age 52. He is buried at his homestead at the base of Longs Peak, which you can still visit today.

The alpine tundra along Trail Ridge Road takes up to a thousand years to establish. A single boot print off the designated trail can take decades to recover. One-third of Rocky Mountain National Park is above treeline. The plants up there have been growing longer than the country has existed.

F.O. Stanley and Enos Mills were both present at the dedication of Rocky Mountain National Park in 1915. Stanley had funded much of Mills' lobbying campaign. Stanley later called the park's creation one of the best things he had ever been part of. This from a man who also invented the Stanley Steamer automobile and built the Stanley Hotel. He had a full résumé.

Earth Day was first celebrated on April 22, 1970. Rocky Mountain National Park had already been protecting this valley for 55 years by that point. Enos Mills started the work 81 years before the first Earth Day. He did not need a reminder.

Buck's Joke Of The Day

Earth Day was established in 1970 to raise awareness about protecting the natural environment.

Rocky Mountain National Park was established in 1915.

Enos Mills started fighting for it in 1889.

He did not know Earth Day was coming.

He did not wait for it either.

(111 years of protection. Mills never once needed a reminder.)

RMNP UPDATE

Spring is arriving in the park the way it always does — unevenly, on its own schedule, without asking anyone's opinion.

The road between Alluvial Fan and Endo Valley is open, and Upper Beaver Meadows Road is open to cars as well. Bear Lake Road is open. Lower elevation trails are accessible and the wildlife is worth getting up early for.

Trail Ridge Road remains closed at Many Parks Curve. No opening date announced for 2026. With the historically thin snowpack this season, an earlier than usual opening is possible. Plowing starts when conditions allow. For current status call 970-586-1222 anytime, or check nps.gov/romo. Conditions can change fast this time of year so call before you go.

Enos Mills met John Muir in 1889 on a camping trip in California. Muir told him to go home and fight for his mountains. Mills spent the next 26 years doing exactly that, writing 16 books, giving thousands of lectures, and lobbying Congress before President Woodrow Wilson signed Rocky Mountain National Park into law on January 26, 1915.

UNTIL NEXT WEEK

Moe finished his coffee and said he was heading out on one of the lower trails. Still muddy from the last snow. The kind where you can hear the creek before you can see it and the elk move through in the early morning before anyone else arrives.

I told him that sounded like the right way to spend the day after Earth Day.

He said every day up here is Earth Day if you are paying attention.

He is right. The park has been there for 111 years. The tundra has been there for centuries. The mountains have been there for five million years. Enos Mills spent twenty-six years making sure it stayed that way.

The least we can do is stay on the trail.

Stay smart, stay safe, and leave the mountains exactly as you found them.

- Buck Timber The Mountain Thread themountainthread.com/signup

This account draws from National Park Service records, the writings of Enos Mills, and the documented history of Rocky Mountain National Park's establishment. The broad facts are solid. A few scenes have been shaped for the telling. Think of it the way you would any good historical drama: based on true events, with a few gaps filled by a storyteller who has lived in this valley long enough to know how these things usually go. - Buck

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