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Updated 02/11/23 7:04 PM
Rocky Mountain National Park
Colorado's Rocky Mountain National Park, situated right on the Continental Divide, is a place of stunning vistas and is also the origin of the Colorado River.
Colorado
2013
About The Park
Rocky Mountain National Park is a park that probably suffers from too much love. It's only 70 miles from Denver and in an hour and a half one can leave the city and see this beautiful mountain park. The effect of being so close to Denver is reflected in the 3 million annual visitors that this park sees.
As such, especially during the summer months, the roads and trails can be a little more crowded than one would like in a national park. The weekends can be especially brutal so it is advisable, if one has the choice, to visit the park during the week.
The main park road, Trail Ridge Road (Hwy 34), which is only open from May to October, crosses the Rockies at around 12,000 feet which makes it the highest continuous highway in the country.
Wildlife
Rocky Mountain Bighorn sheep, Rocky Mountain Elk, Black bears, marmots, Stellar's Jay's and many other varieties of birds and mammals.
Lodging
While there is no lodging in the park there's ample lodging in the surrounding areas. At the south end of Trail Ridge Road there's the Grand Lake area and at the other end of the road, where the eastern entrance is, there's the town of Estes Park. We stayed in Estes Park, mainly because my next stop on this trip was to head north to Rapid City, South Dakota. In Estes Park there's the usual hotel chains up and down the main road.
Stanley Hotel
There's also the beautiful, historic Stanley Hotel (opened by Freelan Stanley inventor of the Stanley Steamer auto) which we spent our last night in. The Stanley is one of those 'haunted' hotels with handouts detailing ghostly sightings over the decades. They even have tours pointing out the rooms where ghosts of been sighted. The hotel is said to be the inspiration for Stephen King’s The Shining and there is even a story about Jim Carrey fleeing room 217.
While we are certainly not big believers in this sort of thing, as it happened, in the middle of the night, a tissue box fell off a small table in the bathroom when we were nowhere near it. Needless to say that was a bit unnerving.
Hiking
With over 300 miles of hiking trails, in the parks 415 square miles, all those visitors, most of which rarely stray far from their cars by the side of the road, are less of an issue out on the trails. That's not to say that the popular trails don't get traffic but they weren't anywhere near as crowded as, for instance, some of the trails in Yosemite.
Alpine Ridge Trail
The Alpine Ridge Trail, which starts at the Alpine visitor center, is a short, paved trail that is a great place to see the famous Rocky Mount bighorn sheep. While there is never any guarantee of seeing wildlife we were lucky to see a herd of at least a dozen bighorn that were grazing just a few dozen feet from the trail. There were about 20 of us watching and taking pictures while the sheep got closer and closer. At one point one was so close that people near it could literally have stuck out their hand and touched it. The people were far too close and had a park ranger happened by he would have chased everybody back. One should never be that close to any animal in a national park. While the animal seemed oblivious to the people that could change in a second should you make a sudden move or be standing on a patch of grass that the animal decides it wants to graze on (something I experienced with a wild horse in another park). These animals are wild, unpredictable and can be dangerous if you are close enough for them to take exception to your invading their space.
Bear Lake Trail
The Bear Lake Trail, which is a short hike on a beautiful and popular trail and, even though it was on a weekend in August, there wasn't enough traffic to detract from the experience. We combined this short hike (0.6 mi) with Emerald Lake and starting at the Glacier Gorge trail head we hiked about 5 miles altogether. There’s lots of trails in the Bear Lake area that you can mix and match and hike a distance or number of hours that suits your abilities. As always, given the high elevation, 7,500 -
Unfortunately the disastrous flood that occurred in September 2013 severely impacted the park and the surrounding area. Many roads and trails suffered significant damage which has yet to be fully repaired. As such any planned visit to the park must take this into account. The most up-
Off Road Driving
Old Fall River Road
There's a beautiful unpaved road that parallels Trail Ridge Road called the Old Fall River Road which, by virtue of its being unpaved, sees a lot less cars than the main highway. The road ends at the Alpine Visitor Center. When we drove it the road was in very good shape and it certainly wasn't difficult, suitable for your basic compact rent-
Rocky Mountain National Park Photo Gallery
Other Resources
Rocky Mountain National Park -
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