Anyone traveling Colorado’s Highway 14 along the Cache la Poudre will agree that it holds many of the beauties that typify Northern Colorado’s Larimer County. This stretch of highway is designated a Colorado Scenic and Historic Byway. Though its beauty has remained for thousands of years, a great deal of work went into developing the access we enjoy today. As you briefly hold your breath through the Baldwin Tunnel, reflect on the innovations it took to bore through the canyon walls. Before the tunnel’s construction in the 1920s this latter stretch of canyon was inaccessible by a direct route. Because of the early construction efforts, recreational hot spots (such as Mountain Park Campground) began to blossom upstream. Like the Baldwin Tunnel, the Mountain Park Campground shares a history of developing lasting recreational opportunities. Not only did opening direct access through Poudre Canyon allow visitors to enjoy the area, but under President Roosevelt’s “New Deal” of the 1930s, it helped to provide employment opportunities to struggling unemployed and unmarried men. These men, working for the Civilian Conservation Corps, are responsible for the impressive masonry work seen not only at Mountain Park Campground, but throughout the National Forests.