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Rocky Mountain National Park
Rocky Mountain National Park is located in the north central region of Colorado. It features majestic mountain views, a variety of wildlife, varied climates and environments—from wooded forests to mountain tundra—and easy access to back-country trails and campsites. The park is located north-west of Boulder, Colorado in the Colorado Rockies, and includes the Continental Divide and the headwaters of the Colorado River in its land area.
The park has five visitor centers. The park headquarters, Beaver Meadows Visitor Center, is a National Historic Landmark, designed by the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture at Taliesin West.
The park is accessed by three roads, U.S. Highway 34 and 36, and Colorado State Highway 7. State Highway 7 enters the park for less than a mile, where it provides access to the Lily Lake Visitor Center. 36 enters the park on the east side, where it terminates after a few miles at 34. 34, known as Trail Ridge Road through the park, runs from the town of Estes Park, Colorado on the east to Grand Lake, Colorado on the south west. The road gets up to 12183 feet elevation, and is closed in the winter due to snow.
Longs Peak is the only fourteener in the park. The park is surrounded by Roosevelt National Forest on the north and east, Routt National Forest on the northwest, and Arapaho Nationa
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Click on the thumbnails to enlarge the pictures. |
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Sprague Lake. |
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Elk in Moraine Park. |
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Elk at Horseshoe Park. |
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Getting ready for winter. |
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Fall Foliage next to Bear Lake Road. |
Longs Peak
Longs Peak is one of the 54 "fourteeners" in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. It can be prominently seen from Longmont, Colorado, as well as from the rest of the Colorado Front Range piedmont. It is named after Major Stephen Long, who explored the area in the 1820s. It is very popular to climb.
On May 31, 2005, an image of Longs Peak was chosen by Colorado governor Bill Owens as the design for the Colorado state quarter, to be released in mid-2006.When taken with its neighbor Mount Meeker, they are sometimes referred to as the Twin Peaks. This is not to be confused with another pair of mountains, called the Twin Sisters.
As the only fourteener in Rocky Mountain National Park, the peak has long been of interest to climbers. The easiest route is not "technical" during the summer season, and was probably first used by American Indians collecting eagle feathers, but the first recorded ascent was in 1868 by the surveying party of John Wesley Powell. The East Face of the mountain is quite steep, and is surmounted by a gigantic sheer cliff known as "The Diamond" (so-named because of its shape, approximately that of a cut diamond seen from the side and inverted - see image at right). Another famous profile belongs to Longs Peak: to the southeast of the summit is a series of rises which, when viewed from the northeast, resembles a beaver.
The first proposal to climb the Diamond, in 1954, was met with an official closure by the National Park Service, a stance not changed until 1960. The Diamond was first ascended that year, and the route was listed in Fifty Classic Climbs of North America, although today the "Casual Route" (5.10-) is considered a better climb.
As with Pikes Peak, there is officially no apostrophe in the name, although a number of Colorado residents continue to object to this ruling by the Board on Geographic Names.
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Lake Haiyaha. |
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Dream Lake. |
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Trail Ridge Road. |
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View from Trail Ridge Road. |
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The Alpine Tundra looks the best in July. |
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Glacier Creek next to Bear Lake Road. |
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Longs Peak in the morning. |
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Longs Peak from Trail Ridge Road. |
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Tourists on Trail Ridge Road. It is easy to spot wildlife .. just look out for cars parking all over the place. |
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Elk high in the mountains next to Trail Ridge Road. |
Trail Ridge Road
Trail Ridge Road traverses Rocky Mountain National Park from Estes Park, Colorado in the east to Grand Lake, Colorado in the west. It crosses the Continental Divide at Milner Pass (elev. 10,120 ft/3,085 m) and reaches a maximum elevation of 12,183 ft (3,713 m). It is the highest paved through highway in the United States, carrying U.S. Highway 34 along its length. |
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