Driving the Trail Ridge Road

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A road goes nearly around Rocky Mountain National Park that starts down in Boulder, thru Estes Park and then over a 12,000+ summit and onto the west side. The road, at 12,000 looks down onto most peaks full of snow and glaciers.

We thought that we’d drive up to the Alpine Visitor’s Center just past the summit on our last day in the Rockies. A plus is that part way up is a Junior Ranger Headquarters and Christabel could get her Jr. Ranger Badge here.

We started out and it is a drive that I highly recommend. Near the summit the road is above tree line and mountains are visible to the west. It is amazing to look down onto mountains that look so high from Denver and see the peaks.

Herds of Elk were at the top where we also encountered snow and hail then pouring rain. A visitor’s center has exhibits on building the road and a few other things, it is small but the gift shop next door is huge with lots of stuff and a café. We were able to eat our picnic lunch in the café without being bothered which was nice that we were not forced to purchase something.

Upon our return to Granite Basin we hopped on a free shuttle bus just to ride around once. We got off at Bear Lake and were going to walk around the lake but mosquitos were so bad we found the first shuttle bus out and hopped on it.

Time to pack up for the drive to Taos.

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