Cliffs and highway, Thompson Canon, CO, circa 1936

About this postcard

The view follows a narrow stretch of the Big Thompson River through Thompson Canyon, with a road cut into the right bank and short white guard posts tracing the bend. Dark cliff walls and scrubby vegetation rise on both sides, closing toward a hazy sky. The caption spells the place Thompson Canon, an older form of canyon, and locates it at Estes Park on the edge of Rocky Mountain National Park. The canyon highway was a scenic approach to Estes Park and the park, and the view shows the kind of dramatic roadside scenery that tourist cards of the period promoted.