Day 2 and we decided to take the drive up Trail Ridge Road. From the National Park website: Trail Ridge Road, Rocky Mountain National Park's heavily traveled highway to the sky, inspired awe before the first motorist ever traveled it. "It is hard to describe what a sensation this new road is going to make," predicted Horace Albright, director of the National Park Service, in 1931 during the road's construction. "You will have the whole sweep of the Rockies before you in all directions."
And you really do. It is an amazing drive, and it goes to over 12, 000 feet up. Wow!
Here are a few pics on the way to Alpine Visitor's Center.
The park is split by the Continental Divide, which gives the eastern and western portions of the park a different character. The east side of the park tends to be drier, with heavily glaciated peaks and cirques. The west side of the park is wetter and more lush, with deep forests dominating. Above tree line, at approximately 11,500 feet (3,500 m), trees disappear and the vast alpine tundra takes over. Due to harsh winds and weather, the plants in the tundra are short with very limited growing seasons. Streams have created lush riparian wetlands across the park.
Here a couple of good pics of the Alpine Tundra.
And here we are at the Alpine Visitor Center.
What was amazing to us, was that there was all this snow. I realize we are at 12,000 feet, but common. And it is like 60 degrees here. And, they had a record low snowfall this year.
There are just so many "Kodak Moments" here in RMNP. What an awesome place to view God's handiwork.
Watch that first step. Not much of a guard rail, and some of these places are a long way down. Whew! I don;t look down. Well, that about wraps up our day two excitement in RMNP. One could spend a week here and not see it all. The parks out west are so big. So, till the next time, RVing Beach Bums plugging along toward Coeur D' Alene.
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