How Did a Wrecked Vehicle Wind Up On This Colorado Hiking Trail?
Hikers can come across some pretty awesome sights on the trails throughout Colorado. From wildlife and beautiful scenery to former dams and other historic remnants of the Centennial State's past, all make for an interesting encounter on any adventure.
Sometimes it's the things we see along the trail that cause us to stop and wonder.
For example, there have been a couple of times where I've found rusty old appliances or even a bathtub on the side of a trail in the middle of the woods. It definitely sparked curiosity regarding the backstory as to how they got there.
A Facebook post in the group Discover Colorado Through Your Photos showed a resident's random discovery of a piano in the middle of the forest while hiking somewhere in the state. How in the world did that large wooden instrument wind up in that remote spot?
Another interesting trailside sight can be found on Castle Rock's Legacy Trail at Gateway Mesa. In the middle of the woods, surrounded by dozens of trees, sits an upside-down automobile. There are no roads nearby, which is part of what makes this such an unusual thing to see in the place that it is.
Others who have hiked this trail have also wondered how the abandoned truck got there. A thread on Reddit provided some theories to this question.
Since there are no roads within close proximity, several people believe it could have fallen off a cliff. Apparently, in other places around Colorado, like Beaver Creek and the foothills of Golden, there are similar sights of abandoned, wrecked vehicles. A Reddit user explained that one of the cars he came across in Golden had to have been there for at least 50 years, based on its model.
Another person on Reddit explained that people used to roll cars off cliffs rather than taking them to a junkyard. Nowadays, this would never fly plus it's much easier to trace cars back to their owners. That could be the case with this car since its deteriorated condition suggests it's been in this spot for a while. Others agreed that abandoning vehicles in the woods was a common way to get rid of junkers in former times.
A final, sad theory is that maybe a road had once existed in the area, and someone did crash, which is how the white truck ended up where it did. Hopefully, that wasn't the situation though.