40°08’56.1″N 105°33’15.5″W
Long before it was Destiny, it was simply a place people found.
Hinono’eino—The Arapaho. They moved through these valleys, as did the Ute and Cheyenne, following paths that required no maps, guided by something older than roads or names. The routes and places of their time would one day become things like Trail Ridge Road and Highway 34. Valleys become homes. Named places alongside the lakes and streams. This valley of ours is described to the trappers that came west from Europe as …a path shaped by Heceihniinoo—the One Who Made Everything. They spoke of a quiet knowing—of understanding where one was meant to be… Destiny.
One of many sacred lands surrounding the Beteen-ni’ec “Holy Lake” (Grand Lake, Colorado – known by the Ute as Spirit Lake, the place where water becomes the mighty Colorado River). For centuries tribes utilized these lands as a prime hunting ground for buffalo, elk, and deer. Watched over by eagles, these places still call to those who pass through reminding them it is something special. Trappers followed those natives here long ago. The lake drew a few more overtime, and a scattering of rough mountain shacks eventually gave way to log cabins and a modest main path through the valley. The path that now bears the name Main Street.
Ancient springs and snowmelt form Ni’ec Ho’oowu Niiinowoohut (The Lake Lodge – where one lives). Destiny Lake rests along the northern edge of town, cradled in a shallow alpine basin. From its outlet, Destiny Creek begins its descent, winding south then turning southeast into the valley below. The creek opens into multiple scattered pools of sparkling water as it slips along the east edge of Main Street, then bends southeast and down the slopes, feeding into the Middle Saint Vrain Creek. From there it joins Boulder Creek, spilling out of the Front Range into the South Platte River on the flat lands. And eventually, that same cold snowmelt finds its way to the Missouri, the Mississippi… and on to the Gulf of America.
From her nest, she can see the roof of Destiny High School just beyond the lake’s edge—the newest, tallest part, the Gymnasium Home of the Eagles. Below it sits the elementary, connected by the Grand Greenhouse Gallery running down along the ridge. When she takes flight, she glides over the water, then dives suddenly, snatching a brown trout from the lake. Rising again, she circles once… then returns to her young.
Year after year, this valley remains her home.
She watches the town change in small ways only. A roof replaced. A porch added. A truck traded for another. People come and go beneath her, living out their little dramas, rarely bothering to look up as she keeps her silent watch—the true mascot of Destiny.
Beyond the school and slightly lower sits the old courthouse and park. Some days she perches in the trees there, watching the highway that runs east and west—west climbing higher into the mountains past abandoned mines toward the Arapaho National Forest and Lake Granby, east winding through the canyons toward Colorado 72 near Peaceful Valley Ranch, then down into Ward. A few blocks east of Courthouse Park, the county road runs north toward Allenspark, the other direction south toward Indian Peaks and the Brainard Lake Recreation Area.
Destiny sits quietly between all of it… as it always has.