Isabella Bird was an English explorer and adventurer. In her life she traveled throughout early North America, Asia, Europe and Australia — all the while supporting herself through writing about her adventures.  

While on a journey, she learned of a place that was supposedly, “the most beautiful country in all of the Americas”.  She set out for Colorado, heading to the mountain town of Estes Park where she explored the valley and climbed the heights of Longs Peak. She is the second woman known to have summited it.

She wrote of her Estes Park adventures in the 1879 book A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains, made from a collection of letters she had written to relatives in Scotland. The book became wildly popular in Europe, thereby creating international interest in Estes Park.

“I have dropped into the very place I have been seeking, but in everything it exceeds all my dreams… The scenery is the most glorious I have ever seen, and is above us, around us, at every door.” – Isabella Bird