Park access will be limited to an 85 percent capacity during this time period, and reservations for visitors are required. Please note: Rocky Mountain National Park will have a reservation system in place from May 27–Oct. To learn more about other Colorado Scenic Byways click here.Soaring to an elevation of 12,183, Trail Ridge Road passes through Rocky Mountain National Park between the towns of Estes Park and Grand Lake and is one of the best ways to see the Continental Divide as it cuts through Colorado.
Like to see as many byways as you can? On the outskirts of Rocky is the oldest Colorado Scenic Byway, Peak to Peak, and another America's Byway, the Colorado River Headwaters. Trail Ridge Road is one of ten America's Byways in Colorado and a national designated All American Road. The experience, as Horace Albright suggested more than a half century ago, is hard to describe. Put aside at least a half day for the trip. Grazing elk greet sunrise and sunset in many of the forest-rimmed meadows found around the park.Īt all elevations, the drive on Trail Ridge Road is a memorable adventure. Moose munch greenery in the upper reaches of the Colorado River, which flows through the scenic Kawuneeche Valley. The Continental Divide, where streamflows are separated east from west, is crossed at Milner Pass, located at a surprisingly low 10,758 feet elevation. Forested moraines, great heaps of earth and rock debris left behind by melting Ice Age glaciers, rise above lush mountain meadows.
They are advised not to ignore all that awaits in the verdant country below the alpine tundra. Most Trail Ridge Road travelers drive to treeline with a certain amount of urgency. All are seen from the Tundra World Nature Trail, a half-hour walk beginning near the parking area at Rock Cut. Despite a growing season that may last just 40 days, many bloom exuberantly, adorning the green summer tundra with swatches of yellow, red, pink, blue, purple and white. About 200 species of tiny alpine plants hug the ground. Pikas, marmots, ptarmigans and bighorn sheep are commonly seen. The vistas, best enjoyed from one of several marked road pullovers, are extravagant, sweeping north to Wyoming, east across the Front Range cities and Great Plains, south and west into the heart of the Rockies.īut for all its harshness, the Trail Ridge tundra is a place of vibrant life and vivid colors. The sun beats down with high- ultraviolet intensity. It's normally windy and 20 to 30 degrees colder than Estes Park or Grand Lake. Up on that windswept alpine world, conditions resemble those found in the Canadian or Alaskan Arctic. At treeline, the last stunted, wind-battered trees yield to the alpine tundra. A drive that may begin in montane forests of aspen and ponderosa pine soon enters thick subalpine forests of fir and spruce. The changes that occur en route are fascinating to observe. Whether they begin their journey at Estes Park or Grand Lake, Trail Ridge Road travelers climb some 4,000 feet in a matter of minutes. 34) offers visitors thrilling views, wildlife sightings and spectacular alpine wildflower exhibitions, all from the comfort of their car. As it winds across the tundra's vastness to its high point at 12,183 feet elevation, Trail Ridge Road (U.S. Eleven miles of this high highway travel above treeline, the elevation near 11,500 feet where the park's evergreen forests come to a halt. Was all this just enthusiastic exaggeration? Hardly.Ĭovering the 48 miles between Estes Park on the park's east side and Grand Lake on the west, Trail Ridge Road more than lives up to its advanced billing. The next year, Rocky Mountain National Park's lofty wilderness interior was introduced to the first travelers along an auto route the Rocky Mountain News called a "scenic wonder road of the world." "You will have the whole sweep of the Rockies before you in all directions." "It is hard to describe what a sensation this new road is going to make," predicted Horace Albright, director of the National Park Service, in 1931 during the road's construction. Trail Ridge Road, Rocky Mountain National Park's heavily traveled highway to the sky, inspired awe before the first motorist ever traveled it.
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