Trail Ridge Road

Trail Ridge Road (Hwy. 34) is considered RMNP's highway to the sky and is the most heavily traveled road in the park.  It covers 48 miles from the east side of RMNP to the west side past Grand Lake, Shadow Mountain Lake, Lake Granby and then exits at the southwest end of the park. Eleven of the miles are traveled above the treeline where the park's evergreen trees come to a halt.

The drive begins in a forest of aspen and ponderosa pine, enters thick alpine forests of fir and spruce, and then at the treeline the last stunted wind-battered trees yield to the alpine tundra.  From the many pullovers you get extravagant views that sweep north to Wyoming, east across the Front Range cities and Great Plains, south and west into the heart of the Rockies. The Continental Divide, where streamflows are separated east from west, is crossed at Milner Pass located at 10,120 ft. elevation which is located west of the highest point on the road ... and we didn't get that far in our drive.

We traveled part of the road twice during our stay.  The first time was before the snow and we stopped at a number of the overlooks on the way.  The road's highest point is between Iceberg Pass and Gore Range and is 12,183 ft. in elevation.  The furthest we went on this road was Forest Canyon Overlook at 11,716 ft. in elevation--east of the Continental Divide.

Here are some pictures we took on our way to those higher elevations.

 

 

 

Below, a little relaxation and time out of the car on the way!

 

Our first stop on the way up was at the first overlook, Many Curves Overlook.  Below is a video that pans the beautiful view from this first overlook.

This first photo was taken from the Rainbow Curve Overlook at 10,825 ft., still below the tundra, but a beautiful day as you can see!

Here's a video panning the view from Rainbow Curve Overlook.

Next stop, Forest Canyon Overlook at 11,716 ft.   In a couple of these photos you get a good look at the alpine tundra (photos #1 and #3 below).  You can also see it's much cloudier up here and the weather is starting to turn a little.  It was very windy and we didn't stay long because the wind was a might chilly as well as stiff.

 
 

Our second excursion up Trail Ridge Road was the day after we had snow.  I thought we'd see so much snow on the ground, but how wrong a girl can be!  There was snow, but not blanketing the ground, just whispers of it.

 

 
 

Exodus 34:5-7

And the LORD descended in the cloud and stood there with him as he called upon the name of the LORD. Then the LORD passed by in front of him and proclaimed, "The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations."