Marble Mountain Caves Colorado

Lloyd parris in caves of colorado notes that marble cave has also been referred to as spanish cave la caverna del oro and marble mountain cave.

Marble mountain caves colorado.

This dissolution produced tube like passages that. So here s two lost mines near or on marble mountain in south central colorado. Colorado is full of purple mountain majesties so you may wonder how we can pick just one to feature in the case of today s summit it was a no brainer. There are at least 11 caves in the marble mountain.

La caverna del oro the cave of gold long before the white man ever came to the united states the legend of la caverna del oro the cave of gold was passed down from generation to generation by the indians. Marble cave and the other caves of the area formed where slightly acidic groundwater slowly dissolved limestone bedrock along joints and fractures. However in 1541 three spanish monks from the coronado expedition forced the indians into slave labor to extract gold from the cave. From this perspective pico asilado is very impressive and a little intimidating.

Most of them are located in the limestone rock formation shown on the left photo above. Finally the indians staged an uprising against the monks and two of them were killed. Boasting an elevation of 13 226 feet and coming in as the 427th highest peak in colorado marble mountain is a true hiker s delight with a distance of 12 miles round trip and an elevation gain of a whopping 3 400 feet. To descend milwaukee return as you came but keep in mind that from the marble milwaukee saddle it s easily possible to hike all long the ridge over to marble mountain and then drop back down to the camp location at 11 050 feet.

Ranked the 427th highest colorado peak at 13 266 ft marble mountain may not seem like it is especially notable but wait until you see this sangre de cristo range and its many unique. Geology and general information about the caves is well described on wayne anderson web site so it won t be repeated here the purpose of this page is to give better directions so you don t have to wonder around in a very steep terrain in vain.