Introduction to Rocky Mountain National Park

Snow-covered peaks stand watch over lush valleys and shimmering alpine lakes, creating the perfect image of America's most dramatic and beautiful landscape -- the majestic Rocky Mountains. Here, the pine- and fir-scented forests are deep, the air is crisp and pure, and the rugged mountain peaks reach up to grasp the deep blue sky. The views are simply spectacular.

Rocky Mountain National Park -- Rocky to its friends -- is unique, not only because of its breathtaking scenery but also because of its diverse terrain, caused in large part by the extremes of elevation it encompasses. There are the ponderosa pine and juniper forests at its relatively low altitudes; then there are the stands of Engelmann spruce and subalpine fir amid meadows of wildflowers; and as one moves onward and upward into the treeless alpine tundra, a bleak, rocky world very similar to the Arctic dominates the landscape.

A prime wildlife-viewing area, the park is home not only to its famous elk, which often congregate in herds in meadows and on mountainsides, but also to mule deer, beavers, coyotes, river otters, moose, bighorn sheep, and an abundance of songbirds. Small mammals, such as chipmunks and squirrels, are almost always skittering about the viewpoints along Trail Ridge Road, as well as the campgrounds and picnic areas, where they have learned that sloppy humans tend to leave bits of food.

Trail Ridge Road, which cuts west through the middle of the park from Estes Park, then south down the park's western boundary to the community of Grand Lake, is one of America's great alpine highways. Consistently rated among the most scenic highways in America, Trail Ridge Road was designated an All-American Road in 1996, one of the first six in the nation. Climbing to 12,187 feet near Fall River Pass, it is the highest continuous paved highway in the United States. The road is usually open from Memorial Day to mid-October, depending on snowfall. The 48-mile scenic drive from Estes Park to Grand Lake takes about 3 hours, allowing for stops at some of its numerous scenic viewpoints. Exhibits at the Alpine Visitor Center at Fall River Pass, 11,800 feet above sea level, explain life on the alpine tundra.

Fall River Road and what is now called Old Fall River Road, the original park road, lead from Estes Park to Fall River Pass via Horseshoe Park. West of the Endovalley picnic area, the road is one-way uphill and is closed to trailers and motor homes. As you negotiate its gravelly switchbacks, you get a clear idea of what early auto travel was like in the West. This road, too, is closed in winter.

One of the few paved roads in the Rockies that lead into a high mountain basin is Bear Lake Road, which is open year-round, with occasional half-day closings to clear snow. Numerous trails converge at Bear Lake, southwest of the Beaver Meadows Visitor Center via Moraine Park.

One particularly inviting aspect of Rocky Mountain National Park is that it can be experienced in a variety of ways, and on many levels. While adventurers will savor the challenging hiking trails and backcountry routes, the curious will relish the unique opportunity to examine millions of years of geologic history, as well as the chance to see rare plant and animal species. Meanwhile, those with an artistic bent might totally ignore the recreational and educational aspects of the park and lose themselves in its beauty. Visitors new to the mountains may simply want to step back and let the total experience wash over them, finding a sense of peace in the serenity and natural wilderness of the park.

Although this can be a difficult and time-consuming park to explore -- ask anyone who has climbed Longs Peak -- Rocky is also, on a different level, one of the West's most accessible national parks. This is due in large part to Trail Ridge Road and an excellent trail system, which offers a surprisingly large number of easy-to-moderate hikes that can be accomplished in a few hours or less. This enables the visitor to explore the park in fairly small, easily digestible bites, sampling one aspect, letting it settle, and then moving along for another taste.

In searching for the essence of the park's natural world -- its mountains, lakes, rivers, plants, and animals -- you'll find well-developed and well-maintained trail systems, overlooks offering panoramic vistas, scenic drives and guided tours, interpretative displays, museum programs, and knowledgeable park rangers ready to help you make the most of your visit. At first it may seem overwhelming -- you wonder, How can I possibly see everything there is to be seen here? Don't try. Forget about visiting Rocky as if it were an amusement park, racing from ride to ride; this park should be savored, embraced, and explored, and the best way to do that is to move slowly. Take the time to ponder a sunrise as it illuminates Longs Peak, to sit quietly at the edge of a meadow while waiting for an elk or deer to emerge from the woods for its evening meal, and even, as the cliché goes, to stop and smell the flowers.

It's almost certain that you won't see every corner of the park, even on a long vacation of 2 or 3 weeks. Rocky is enormous and overpowering. It's almost impossible to look at these magnificent peaks and the harshness of the alpine tundra, and to not think about the place of humanity, and to some extent our insignificance, in the total scheme of things.

One Gutsy Lady! -- Isabella Lucy Bird, an intrepid Englishwoman returning home from the Hawaiian Islands in the fall of 1873, spent about 3 months exploring what we now call the Front Range of the Rockies, on horseback and mostly by herself. Crossing into the interior of the continent by rail from California, she left the train at Cheyenne, Wyoming, and headed south into Colorado. Her goal, she wrote, was "a most romantic place called Estes Park, at a height of 7,500 feet."

She arrived in late September and observed, "Longs Peak, 14,700 feet high, dwarfs all the surrounding mountains." (Actually, Longs Peak is 14,259 ft. in elevation.) Five years after the first successful ascent of Longs Peak, Bird became the first woman to reach the top. "It was something at last to stand upon the storm-rent crown of this lonely sentinel of the Rocky Range. Uplifted above love and hate and storms of passion, calm amidst the eternal silences, fanned by zephyrs and bathed in living blue, peace rested for that one bright day on the Peak," she wrote to her sister.

Bird spent several weeks that autumn in a small cabin on Lake Estes. Nights were dark except for the brilliance of the stars, morning frosts were sharp, and water was carried from the lake. In late October she embarked on a tour of Colorado's Front Range, riding a bay pony, "a little beauty, with legs of iron, fast, enduring, gentle, and wise," disregarding warnings of hostile American Indians and the threat of snow and cold. Undeterred, Bird headed south across the plains, staying in lodgings when available but camping out under the stars at other times. She followed rivers and trails through Denver to Old Colorado City, located in present-day Colorado Springs. Turning once more toward the mountains, she passed through the rich red rocks known as the Garden of the Gods, and listened to tales of the healing powers of the springs of Manitou. Winding her way back north, she endured snow blindness and bitter cold, before again reaching Estes Park, and writing, "Nothing I have seen in Colorado compares with Estes Park."

In early December, Isabella Bird left Estes Park for the final time, returning to the train at Cheyenne and eventually home to afternoon tea, fine linens, and a warm, soft bed in England. Although she later traveled to Japan, India, Turkey, and China, she never again visited the land she had fondly called the Wild West.