The Rocky Mountain Nature Association is an excellent information source, providing mail orders as well as operating the bookshops at the park. Another good source for regional books and advice on what books might be of interest to you is Macdonald Book Shop, 152 E. Elkhorn Ave. (P.O. Box 900), Estes Park, CO 80517 (tel. 970/586-3450; macdonaldbooks@aol.com).
An excellent guidebook, Hiking Rocky Mountain National Park (Globe Pequot Press, 2002), by Kent and Donna Dannen, gives detailed trail descriptions. Those who plan to do serious backpacking may want to consider buying U.S. Geological Survey topographic maps or the accurate and easy-to-follow Trails Illustrated map of the park.
History buffs looking for an 1870s perspective of the land that would become Rocky Mountain National Park should try the fascinating first-person narrative A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains (University of Oklahoma Press, 1999), by Isabella Bird. For a historical view starting in the 1920s, you may want a copy of Recollections of a Rocky Mountain Ranger (YMCA of the Rockies, 2001), by Jack C. Moomaw. A thorough and well-researched history of the park is presented in Rocky Mountain National Park: A History (University Press of Colorado, 1983), by C. W. Buchholtz.
For videos, we recommend the DVD Spirit of the Mountains, which offers great views of the park's wondrous scenery and is available from the Rocky Mountain Nature Association; and Rocky Mountain National Park, which also presents a colorful glimpse of the park's wondrous scenery and is available in VHS, PAL, and DVD from INTERpark.
