Exploring Trail Ridge Road

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We only have a couple more days before we head out of Grand Lake. We had done some exploration on the east side of RMNP from the Beaver Meadows entrance back in May during our stop in Loveland. Those visits got us into the park about 17 miles of Trail Ridge Road. At the time, it was still closed due to snow a bit further west so that was about all we could do. During our stay this past week or so, we have seen a lot on the west side of RMNP all the way up to the Alpine Visitor Center - about 20 miles in from the Grand Lake entrance. But there was about 17 miles of Trail Ridge between the Alpine VC and the Alluvial Fan that we hadn’t seen yet. It seems like any visit to this park should include the full drive, and now that the road is open for the season, we have no excuse. So Wednesday morning, we head in again.

Our goal was to stop at most of the overlooks and pullouts along the new portion of the drive but not do any serious hikes simply in the interest of time. About a mile beyond the Alpine Visitor Center is the Gore Range Overlook. The views are outstanding both of the Gore Range and the Never Summer Mountains. It’s at an elevation of 12,030 feet and we definitely can tell. We had checked the forecast and knew that it was going to be rather cold up here so we had dressed accordingly.

Overlooking Gore Range

A bit further along the road is the highest point of Trail Ridge Road - 12,183 feet. Our next destination was only a mile away at the Lava Cliffs pullout. There is an EarthCache here so we needed to do a bit of research about the geology of this spot. We discovered that a volcano several miles away erupted 28 million years ago and spewed the volcanic rock we see today. There was still a lot of snow covering the side. There were quite a number of marmots at this stop. They seemed curious if we might be willing to feed them, but went on to do their thing once they realized that wasn’t going to happen.

Snow Covered Lava Cliffs

Marmot Checks Us Out

Our next stop was 2 miles further along the road. The Tundra Communities Trail is only 1.2 miles round trip from the rather large parking area. It only gains about 150 feet of elevation, so how tough could it be? Well it starts at 12,150 feet and ends at 12,300 feet so this will be our highest hike to date. It was a rather busy place. I suspect the majority of the visitors are coming up from Estes Park where it was relatively warm when they left this morning. A good number of them are in shorts and some only had on short sleeve t-shirts. We had jeans, a couple layers of tops and coats and still were cold. I can only imagine how they felt as the wind whipped over the tundra.

Starting Up Tundra Communities Trail

Alpine Lake

Tundra Blooms

The trail is paved so footing isn’t too bad. They have all sorts of interpretive signs along the way which gives us a good reason to stop and catch our breath. One of the signs proves the park staff has a sense of humor. Another marmot was eyeing us as we walked by trying to determine when it was safe to run across the trail with all the people walking by.

Marmot Looks for a Chance to Cross Trail

National Park Humor

Getting a Better View

About a 1/3 mile up the trail is a small spur trail over to some rock outcroppings called Mushroom Rocks. We needed to investigate to be able to answer some questions for another EarthCache. We’ve seen ones like this before but they usually have been much larger groups of them. There were only a handful here.

Rock Outcropping

Spur Trail to Mushroom Rocks

Capstone Protecting Softer Rock Below

Nice View from Here

View Through Gap

At the end of the trail is another large rock outcropping. Attached to this rock is the Toll Memorial in honor of Roger Toll - the superintendent of this park back in the 1920’s. The plaque was somewhat easy to get to but the actual is atop the rock. It is a bit of a rock climb to get up there and Chris opted to skip seeing it. It wouldn’t have been too bad but the wind was really howling at this point and so I needed to adjust my stance to account for the wind. There is a bronze, circular thing attached to the top of the rock. All around the perimeter are the names of nearby peaks, with how many miles away and how tall they are. The idea is to pick one of the listed mountains and line your eye with the name and a small nub on the top of it to line yourself with the desired peak. I tried it for one mountain but it felt like the wind wanted to blow me over, so I descended to find Chris and head back down to the relative warmth of the car.

Pocket of Color by Rocks

Toll Memorial Plaque

Mountain Peak Locator

View Back Down Trail

Panoramic View from Tundra Communities Trail

Two miles further down the road is our next stop - Forest Canyon. There is a short walk from the parking lot to the overlook. Another marmot was there to greet us as we arrived. Even though he was begging for food, he did it in a much less obtrusive way than a chipmunk would. Nice views here and the sign helps us identify the nearby peaks along the Continental Divide.

Another Marmot Greets Us Here

More Convenient Peak Locator

Not quite 3 miles down the road is Rainbow Curve. It’s another overlook with a rather large parking area. There was even a park volunteer stationed here to help answer questions. We have worked our way below 11,000 feet and are now below tree line. The views here are pretty good too. We can see Trail Ridge Road as is snakes it’s way down into the valley below. We can even see some familiar places we visited 6 weeks ago.

Trail Ridge Road Winds Down Into Valley

Alluvial Fan Area

Our next stop is about 4 miles further down the road - Many Parks Curve. We are now down around 9700 feet and it is much warmer. We are able to drop a couple of layers of clothes so we don’t look to be the oddballs. We take the short walk along the path. It’s a bit of a challenge because we must cross the road from the parking area to the trail. Let’s hope that the people driving the road pay attention to the pedestrian crossing signs. Nice view here as well.

Rock Formation at Many Parks Curve

By now we were getting hungry. In just 2 miles more is the Hidden Valley Picnic Area. Sounded like the perfect spot for our lunch. We enjoy the views while eating and then take the half mile nature loop. The building here had a booth for the Junior Ranger program and there were a lot of kids. The loop goes on either side of the small creek that runs through the valley.

Crossing Over Creek

View Further Up the Valley

Small Falls

After lunch we only needed to drive a mile more down the road to the Beaver Ponds pullout. There was a short walk on a boardwalk to a little creek. We saw no beavers but did get to accomplish the virtual geocache that is located there.

Boardwalk at Beaver Ponds

To complete our goal of seeing the rest of Trail Ridge Road, we drive to the parking lot at Sheeps Lake about 4 miles away in the hopes of seeing bighorn sheep. We were here 6 weeks ago and it had started to rain as we pulled into the parking lot. Wouldn’t you know it, the rain started to fall as we pulled in this time as well. We waited a bit, didn’t see any bighorn so we decided to head back to camp - about 40 miles away. I’m sure there was lots more to see along our route but we felt we definitely got the highlights.

As we got close to camp, we realized that the weather was nice on this side of the park and we had made good enough time to be back for the 3 PM ranger walk from the Kawuneeche Visitor center. So we just head there instead of camp. The same ranger that did our walk yesterday at the Holzwarth Historic Site was giving this one as well. Today’s topic was the East Troublesome Fire. It was a fairly small group - just the two of us and a family of five from Cincinnati. Ranger Tim came prepared with all sorts of maps, pictures and other data pertaining to the fire. We slowly walked up a trail that was in the heart of the fire zone stopping at points to learn more facts and details. Being in the area burned was much more informative than simply hearing about it in a meeting room with PowerPoint slides.

Burned Out Trees Along Trail

Ranger Tim Explains the Size of East Troublesome Fire

This fire burned just under 194,000 acres. Investigators determined it was human cause and likely a careless hunter or camper not putting out their campfire. The first days were not all that critical. The fire was about 20 miles away and advancing at a normal pace. It started in National Forest land and there weren’t buildings or humans in the path so it wasn’t being fought initially.

But several days later, the winds picked up to 60 MPH and embers were driven all over the place. The town of Grand Lake lost hundreds of structures and two people perished in the blaze. Somehow the downtown area of Grand Lake and the Kawuneeche Visitor Center survived. One of the most amazing facts about the fire was that it went thru RMNP and actually jumped the Continental Divide! Remember, nearly all of the high peaks in the park are above tree line, so there are limited fuels up there. The fire that made it over came very close to Estes Park before it was under control. The fire also had the trait of burning hotter than many wildfires of the past. The area we were walking thru make take much longer to recover because the soil was sterilized by the heat. Large boulders along the trail had gotten so hot that the little water that is in them boiled and caused much of the surface of the rock to be flaked off. It was an interesting but sobering walk.

Aspen Trees Burned

Our last day turned out to be a rather dreary and rainy one. We took it easy and headed over to the Grand Lake Lodge for lunch. The outside of the lodge isn’t all that special but it is rather pretty inside. We had a wonderful lunch with a view high above Grand Lake and nearby Shadow Mountain Lake.

Grand Lake Lodge

Antler Chandelier

Large Central Fireplace

Bar Area

Our Lunch View of Grand & Shadow Mountain Lakes

Classic Car

Old Fire Truck

We had a wonderful 10 nights in Grand Lake and the western side of RMNP. We likely could have found much more to do in the area. To bad Winding River RV Resort doesn’t have any extended stay rates - just the daily rate even if you stay for the season. Our next stop will be for the month of July. We’re headed to Kremmling Colorado. If you haven’t heard of it, you’ll need to read future posts to find out what there is to see and do.