"Trail Ridge Road" - 6.8.09

We broke camp early at the Elk Meadow RV Park and was entering the Rocky Mountain National Park for the last time around 6:30 am. Our plans? Get across Trail Ridge Road before any bad weather set in.

Trail Ridge Road is the park's star attraction and the world's highest continuous paved highway. It tops out at 12,183 feet above sea level. It's 48 miles long and connects the east and west entrances. It climbs 4,300 feet in elevation.

As we began our ascent the views were beyond description. (click on the pictures for a larger image) Again, every turn was something different and wonderful. We had just passed the 10,000 ft. mark when we saw something we could not believe. "ROAD CLOSED" was on the gate before me. My heart sank for a couple of reasons. First of all, this is one of the premiere drives in United States. I had looking forward to it for months. Second, we were heading west. We would take Trail Ridge Road out of the west side of the park and down to Interstate 70 where we would head for Utah. With the road closed we would have to head back down off the mountain and backtrack through Boulder, etc. That would take hours.

I spoke to a ranger there and he felt confident that the road would open that day but could not say when. There had been snow the day and evening before, (which I got caught in - check last blog entry) and the 1.5 foot drifts had to be cleared off the road.

I decided to wait. Going back was not an option. I had waited a long time to drive this road and was going to do it today. So we waited... and waited... and waited... and finally we waited some more. We were the first ones at this checkpoint where the gates were closed. Over the next several hours we saw tour buses come up the mountain and then turn back. We invited some motorcyclists from Germany to warm up in the RV, and I had the opportunity to meet a nice gentleman from Maine who was visiting the park, like me, for the first time.

Four hours later, the gates opened. Everyone made a dash to get in line. Not me. I am 50 feet long and slow. We were happy to be underway. As we headed above the treeline, the terrain becomes rather barren, but the sheer size of the mountains is... intimidating. As you can see in the pictures, there were snow drifts taller than the RV and no guard rails along the road. You may also notice the long poles sticking out of the ground on each side of the road. The poles are there so the snow plows can know where the road is when there is 10 ft. of snow.

Just after we passed 12,000 feet the snow hit... and it hit hard. The winds picked up and again the mountains and a good part of the road disappeared. We crawled our way down the mountain very carefully. I don't want to give the wrong impression. We weren't in any real danger but it was unnerving. As we dropped in elevation the snow began to let up. The scenery began to come back into focus through the white snowy haze.We missed many of the views that Trail Ridge Road had to offer but we will always remember the experience.

After climbing a few more mountains south of the park we made it to Interstate 70 and headed west. I was exhausted, but in a good way. We thanked the Lord for keeping us safe... and in awe. -Alan