Three passes have perennially provided access over the Divide to the Yampa, its lush valley and lands further west. Rabbit Ears Pass is perhaps best known to modern travelers because U.S. 40 follows the route once tread by Ute Indians and pioneers. Adjacent to it, Muddy Pass, at 8,772 feet elevation, splits off from Rabbit Ears Pass' southern end and drops down into the vast expanses of North Park, which creates the North Fork of the Platte River. Muddy is the lowest saddle along Colorado's portion of the Divide and thus has seen much traffic over the centuries. Today, of course, hikers, skiers, fishermen and hunters roam the undulating hills of this dual-pass region, occasionally getting lost due to the mesmerizing sameness of the forested terrain.
Visitors are well-advised to know their routes and carefully keep track of their whereabouts.
Resisting the passes, however, is impossible. From certain high points one can look south to the jagged Gore Range, east to the Rawah Wilderness and west to the anachronistic Flat Tops, which give rise to the Yampa. North along the Park Range, in Steamboat Springs' backyard, a dirt road snakes out of Strawberry Park to surmount the highest of the nearby passes over the Divide, aptly named Buffalo Pass. At 10,200 feet elevation, this pass still provides a gradual and usable route over the mountains. Buffalo found it useful in prehistoric days, local Utes used it to travel to the hot springs at the eastern base of the Range, and in the late 19th century, when Steamboat got settled, supply wagons and loggers used the pass to travel between the Yampa and North Platte drainages.