Grand tours: Isabella Bird in Colorado

The rockiest road in the Wild West

Isabella Bird is the ideal traveller," noted 'The Spectator' in 1879. "There never was anybody who had adventures as well as Miss Bird." Born the sickly daughter of a Victorian clergyman, Isabella Bird was still trekking through Tibet, climbing the American Rockies and venturing into the Atlas Mountains well into her 70s. She first set off alone to the Antipodes in 1872 "in search of health" but soon found that travel was addictive. In 1873 she rode her horse, Birdie, into the American Wild West and met her spiritual counterpart, the "dear desperado" Rocky Mountain Jim, "a man any woman might love, but no sane woman would marry". Despite her reluctance literally to "shack up" with Jim, he remained her guide through the mountain passes of the Rockies (from where she sent this account to her sister Henrietta). She gave up her travels in 1898 and died in 1904.

Halls Gulch, November 6.

I have ridden 150 miles since I wrote last. On leaving Twin Rock on Saturday I had a short day's ride to Colonel Kittridge's cabin at Oil Creek, where I spent a quiet Sunday with agreeable people. The ride was all through parks and gorges, and among pine-clothed hills, about 9,000 feet high, with Pike's Peak always in sight. I have developed much sagacity in finding a trail, or I should not be able to make use of such directions as these: "Keep along a gulch four or five miles till you get Pike's Peak on your left, then follow some wheel-marks till you get to some timber, and keep to the north till you come to a creek, where you'll find a great many elk tracks; then go to your right and cross the creek three times, then you'll see a red rock to your left," etc etc.

The K's cabin was very small and lonely, and the life seemed a hard grind for an educated and refined woman. There were snow flurries after I arrived, but the first Sunday of November was as bright and warm as June, and the atmosphere had resumed its exquisite purity. Three peaks of Pike's Peak are seen from Oil Creek, above the nearer hills, and by them they tell the time. We had been in the evening shadows for half an hour before those peaks ceased to be transparent gold. On leaving Colonel Kittridge's hospitable cabin I dismounted to lower a bar, and, on looking round, Birdie was gone! I spent an hour in trying to catch her, but she had taken an "ugly fit", and would not let me go near her; and I was getting tired and vexed, when two passing trappers, on mules, circumvented and caught her.

I rode the twelve miles back to Twin Rock, and then went on, a kindly teamster, who was going in the same direction, taking my pack. I must explain that every mile I have travelled since leaving Colorado Springs has taken me higher into the mountains. That afternoon I rode through lawn-like upland parks, and in front mountains bathed in rich atmospheric colouring of blue and violet, all very fine, but threatening to become monotonous, when the waggon road turned abruptly to the left, and crossed a broad, swift, mountain river, the head-waters of the Platte. There I found the ranch to which I had been recommended, the quarters of a great hunter named Link, which much resembled a good country inn.

There was a pleasant, friendly woman, but the men were all away, a thing I always regret, as it gives me half an hour's work at the horse before I can write to you. I had hardly come in when a very pleasant German lady, whom I met at Manitou, with three gentlemen, arrived, and we were as sociable as people could be. We had a splendid though rude supper. While Mrs Link was serving us, she was orating on the greediness of English people, saying that "you would think they travelled through the country only to gratify their palates;" and addressed me, asking me if I had not observed it! I am nearly always taken for a Dane or a Swede, never for an Englishwoman, so I often hear a good deal of outspoken criticism.

In the evening Mr Link returned, and there was a most vehement discussion between him, an old hunter, a miner, and the teamster who brought my pack, as to the route by which I should ride through the mountains and it was renewed with increased violence the next morning, so that if my nerves had not been of steel I should have been appalled.

The old hunter acrimoniously said he "must speak the truth," the miner was directing me over a track where for twenty-five miles there was not a house, and where, if snow came on, I should never be heard of again. The miner said he "must speak the truth," the hunter was directing me over a pass where there were five feet of snow, and no trail. The teamster said that the only road possible for a horse was so-and-so, and advised me to take the waggon road into South Park, which I was determined not to do. Mr Link said he was the oldest hunter and settler in the district, and he could not cross any of the trails in snow. And so they went on. At last they partially agreed on a route – "the worst road in the Rocky Mountains," the old hunter said, with two feet of snow upon it, but a hunter had hauled an elk over part of it, at any rate. The upshot of the whole you shall have in my next letter.

Follow in the footsteps

Lost in space

With its sweeping plains in the east and mountains in the west, Colorado is one of the most geographically diverse states in North America. The Pike's Peak region near Colorado Springs is the state's busiest destination. Scores of visitors come to gaze upon the view which inspired Catherine Lee Bates to write the words to "America the Beautiful" in 1893. However, it is the rugged open spaces, clear skies and towering Alpine vistas of its huge national parks that are Colorado's main attraction.

Follow in the hoofprints

There is no better way to get into the frontier spirit than to get in the saddle, but it doesn't come cheap. Unicorn Trails (01767 600606; www.unicorntrails.com) has seven nights on its Echo Canyon ranch near Colorado Springs for £1,100. The price includes accommodation, food, drinks and riding. Flights are not included, but transfers are. A flight to Colorado Springs is £599.60 if booked through www.expedia.co.uk.

Two legs good, four legs bad

Central Colorado offers some of the finest hiking in the world. Companies such as Greenways of England (www.greenwaysofengland.com, 01246 862657) and Exodus (www.exodus.co.uk, 020-8675 5550) organise all-inclusive guided expeditions.

'Snow bad thing

Skiing is the cornerstone of Colorado's tourist industry, and Aspen is the largest and most glamorous of its 28 resorts. Ski All America (08701 687687, www.skiallamerica.com) has seven nights' b&b in January at the Stonebridge Inn for £798 per person including flights. A six-day lift pass is £167.

Callum Watkinson