The Altitude Context

Hourglass Cave sits at an elevation of approximately 3,400 meters above sea level — roughly 10,700 to 11,000 feet in common imperial measurement.

This elevation places the cave above the upper limit of tree growth in the Colorado Rockies, in the treeline zone or above it, in terrain that is Alpine in its character.

The question of when early people began using high-altitude environments in the Rocky Mountain region is one that the Hourglass Cave discovery directly addresses, and it was substantially more interesting and more contested at the time of the discovery than it might appear today.

For much of the history of American archaeology, the assumption had been that high-altitude environments — above treeline, in the alpine and subalpine zones that characterize the upper reaches of the Rockies — were marginal, difficult, and therefore late in their human occupation.