Alpine Start

By sunrise I stood in the Dillon Valley.  There the Ten Mile, Blue River and Snake river converge and form a rich environment that was home to Native Ute tribes that spent summers hunting in the valley.  Later, fur trappers settled the area and formed the trading post and town of Dillon, Colorado.

In the 1960's the city of Denver built the Dillon Dam to preserve water for city dwellers low on the Front Range.  As the valley filled, residents were forced to leave behind the original town of Dillon that still rests at the bottom of the reservoir.  Overwhelmed by the water were the true confluences of the rivers as well as Colorado's first ski jumping hill.