Rocky Mountain National Park - Trail Ridge Road - Estes Park, Colorado to Grand Lake, Colorado
Sunday, July 17th, 2016
Today our family set out on a cross-mountain adventure! Starting from Estes Park, we drove through Rocky Mountain National Park on Trail Ridge Road to the other side of the Rocky Mountains to the town of Grand Lake. The road takes a 48-mile journey that took us 2-3 hours to complete. Our trip started at around 8,000 feet, and at its highest point, we reached an altitude of 12,183 feet, almost two miles above sea level! It is actually considered the nation's highest continuous highway, with more than 8 miles above 11,000 feet.
Elevation map of Trail Ridge Road.
Map of Trail Ridge Road
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Our first stop on the trip was a quick pull off to take a picture of the Moraine Park area where we were camping.
Moraine Park as seen from Trail Ridge Road
Soon, our journey had us going up, up, up! My mom had a hard time deciding whether to look at the beautiful scenery or to look straight ahead and ignore the giant drop offs just feet from our car.
Our second stop was at Rainbow Curve (10,085 feet). This is a MUST STOP destination, especially because they have bathrooms. We had an amazing view of the Alluvial Fan, Beaver Ponds, and Horseshoe Park.
Hanging out at Rainbow Curve
Panoramic at Rainbow Curve.
We continued our upward trek into the mountains. Every 30 seconds gave new, awe inspiring views of the world above or the world below. Eventually, we had climbed high enough to reach the tundra. Long gone were all the trees, this was a barren world of rock, grass, and flowers. There was a bridge to protect the "fragile tundra" wildlife that led to a snowfield. So, what does a family do when they reach a snowfield in July? SNOWBALL FIGHT!
Alpine Tundra habitats are extremely fragile, so the NPS constructed a bridge to easily access the snowfield.
Snowball fight!
Look back at the snowfield and Trail Ridge Road.
Different species of flowers found in the Tundra.
We made a few more quick stops along Trail Ridge Road, but we were getting hungry and vowed to hit some of the bigger spots on the way back to Estes Park. We did stop and see some wildlife in a few different places. Up near the highest point of the trip, we saw a herd of Elk right off the roadway. We also spotted a moose down near the end of the journey close to Timber Creek Campground.
Herd of Elk laying in the snow right off of the road.
Moose hiding in the brush.
So, after 48 miles and about 2 hours of driving, we found ourselves in the small mountain town of Grand Lake, Colorado, and lucky us, we were in for a surprise.
As we drove into Grand Lakes, police officers were directing traffic away from the "downtown" area. Apparently, the 69th Annual Buffalo BBQ Parade was about to take place. We made our way to the end of the parade route and immediately found the best parade we've ever seen. The last few blocks of the parade are considered a "wet zone." Residents had squirt guns, water balloons, and anything else that would hold water. The parade goers would throw their balloons or squirt their guns at the parade floats, and in turn, the parade floats would try and soak the parade goers back with their own armada of water balloons and guns! By parades end, we were absolutely soaked! Thank you too many of the townsfolk who allowed our kids to use their balloons and water guns so they could participate in the festivities!
We dried off while playing in the park in the middle of town and had lunch at Grand Pizza. Finally, it was time to make our way back across the mountains to Estes Park and our campground.
Our first major stop was at the Kawuneeche Visitor's Center, the western entrance to RMNP. Here I earned my first Jr. Ranger Badge!
Our second major stop was at the Alpine Visitor Center (11,798 feet). Here we took a small trail (dubbed Huffer's Hill) up the mountain into the tundra. The climb was no easy task at over 2 miles above sea level!
View of the Alpine Visitors Center from the top of "Huffer's Hill"
I made it to 12,000 feet!
Glacier/Snowfield behind the Visitor's Center
We stopped at several other places along the way with amazing photo opportunities that had breathtaking views. It is probably one of the coolest experiences I have ever had, and almost all of it was from the backseat of my car!
