Colorado Trip Planning

Well, we're 8 days away from leaving on our Colorado trip!  We've been busy getting our lodging accommodations in order this week, and I have started organizing some of my clothes and gear.  My dad lives in Florida, so I will need to bring some cold weather gear for him too.

I've been working with ArcGIS Online at work as several of my customers are starting to implement it and I put together a quick "Story Map" to highlight our planned stops across the state.  It works best in a Chrome or Firefox browser.  I plan to fill in with more details and pictures when I return.  We'll drive more than 1000 miles in the 8 days we are traveling across Colorado.  We're celebrating my brother Forest's birthday on Monday 9/8 while we're in Crested Butte.

Trying to plan horseback rides in Crested Butte and Estes Park.  Also trying to line up some ziplines, something I have not done before.  Need to get some adrenaline flowing!  Plan to ride the Crested Butte chairlift to the top of the mountain and hopefully hike/ascend to the peak if the weather is good and we aren't bothered by elevation sickness.  Hopefully spending a day in Denver at 5280' elevation, then driving across the high mountains to Grand Junction at 4500' will give us a chance to acclimate to the altitude before we explore Crested Butte at 9375'.  When we ascend to the peak of Mount Crested Butte, we'll be at 12,162'!

Rocky Mountain National Park has the highest paved roads in any National Park in the United States. Trail Ridge Road crests at 12,183 feet. Due to the high elevations and exposure, park roads are subject to strong winds and rapid weather changes. Road conditions in and around the park can change quickly, particularly in the spring and fall.  We're hoping to be able to drive from the Western Side entrance of the park along Trail Ridge Road to Estes Park, where we will explore for 2 days before heading back to Denver and reality.  The road is currently open, but it can change at any point and could be closed for the season before we get there.  We'll have to check before we leave Crested Butte to determine whether to follow our main plan and drive to Granby to head up Trail Ridge Road or drive the main roads into Estes Park.  If you've never driven it, you don't know what you are missing. 

I last drove it in 1986 after I graduated from WVU, and made a trip to see Grandpa Knudson in Denver before heading south to see Don in New Orleans, my friend Lynn Epps in Birmingham, then returning home to Charleston, WV.  Two weeks after my trip I moved to State College and started my career.  Can't wait to see it again - hope that it is open when we attempt the drive!

Excerpt from the Trail Ridge Road Website:

Covering the 48 miles between Estes Park on the park's east side and Grand Lake on the west, Trail Ridge Road more than lives up to its advanced billing. Eleven miles of this high highway travel above treeline, the elevation near 11,500 feet where the park's evergreen forests come to a halt. As it winds across the tundra's vastness to its high point at 12,183 feet elevation, Trail Ridge Road (U.S. 34) offers visitors thrilling views, wildlife sightings and spectacular alpine wildflower exhibitions, all from the comfort of their car.

Whether they begin their journey at Estes Park or Grand Lake, Trail Ridge Road travelers climb some 4,000 feet in a matter of minutes. The changes that occur en route are fascinating to observe. A drive that may begin in montane forests of aspen and ponderosa pine soon enters thick subalpine forests of fir and spruce. At treeline, the last stunted, wind-battered trees yield to the alpine tundra.

Up on that windswept alpine world, conditions resemble those found in the Canadian or Alaskan Arctic. It's normally windy and 20 to 30 degrees colder than Estes Park or Grand Lake. The sun beats down with high- ultraviolet intensity. The vistas, best enjoyed from one of several marked road pullovers, are extravagant, sweeping north to Wyoming, east across the Front Range cities and Great Plains, south and west into the heart of the Rockies.

But for all its harshness, the Trail Ridge tundra is a place of vibrant life and vivid colors. Pikas, marmots, ptarmigans and bighorn sheep are commonly seen. About 200 species of tiny alpine plants hug the ground. Despite a growing season that may last just 40 days, many bloom exuberantly, adorning the green summer tundra with swatches of yellow, red, pink, blue, purple and white. All are seen from the Tundra World Nature Trail, a half-hour walk beginning near the parking area at Rock Cut.

Most Trail Ridge Road travelers drive to treeline with a certain amount of urgency. They are advised not to ignore all that awaits in the verdant country below the alpine tundra. Forested moraines, great heaps of earth and rock debris left behind by melting Ice Age glaciers, rise above lush mountain meadows. The Continental Divide, where streamflows are separated east from west, is crossed at Milner Pass, located at a surprisingly low 10,120 feet elevation. Moose munch greenery in the upper reaches of the Colorado River, which flows through the scenic Kawuneeche Valley. Grazing elk greet sunrise and sunset in many of the forest-rimmed meadows found around the park.

At all elevations, the drive on Trail Ridge Road is a memorable adventure. Put aside at least a half day for the trip. Longer, if possible. The experience, as Horace Albright suggested more than a half century ago, is hard to describe.

Trail Ridge Road is one of ten America's Byways in Colorado and a national designated All American Road.