Rocky Mountain National Park

Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP) was established on January 26, 1915, and has for more than a century been one of the country's most visited national parks. Located approximately 55 miles (89 km) northwest of Denver in north-central Colorado within the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains, the park is situated between the towns of Estes Park to the east and Grand Lake to the west. The park's 415 square miles (265,807 acres) encompass a spectacular range of mountain environments, from meadows found in the montane life zone to glistening alpine lakes and towering mountain peaks. Designated a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in 1976, the national park draws visitors from around the world to its broad glacier-carved valleys, numerous alpine lakes, and plunging streams. Greeting more than 4.5 million annual visitors, the park offers rugged postcard-perfect peaks, glistening lakes, and webs of trails through various ecosystems.

Geography and Terrain

The eastern and western slopes of the Continental Divide run directly through the center of the park, with the headwaters of the Colorado River located in the park's northwestern region. Rocky Mountain National Park encompasses 265,461 acres (414.78 sq mi) of federal land, with an additional 253,059 acres of U.S. Forest Service wilderness adjoining the park boundaries. Rivers and streams on the western side of the divide flow toward the Pacific Ocean, while those on the eastern side flow toward the Atlantic.

Rocky Mountain National Park is one of the highest national parks in the nation, with elevations ranging from 7,860 to 14,259 feet (2,396 to 4,346 m); sixty mountain peaks over 12,000 feet (3,658 m) provide scenic vistas. The park's highest summit, Longs Peak, rises to 14,259 feet and is the only fourteener within park boundaries. For many years it was thought that Longs Peak was impossible to climb; the first recorded ascent was made by a party led by explorer John Wesley Powell in 1868. Since then, Longs Peak has become a major destination for climbers as one of the more challenging mountains in Colorado.

A geographical anomaly is found along the slopes of the Never Summer Mountains, where the Continental Divide forms a horseshoe-shaped bend for about 6 miles (9.7 km), curving sharply southward and westward out of the park; this causes streams on the eastern slopes of that range to join the headwaters of the Colorado River, flowing south and west toward the Pacific. The park contains approximately 450 miles (724 km) of rivers and streams, 350 miles (563 km) of trails, and 150 lakes. One-third of the national park sits above the height where trees can grow, making it the highest national park by average elevation in the United States Park System.

Rocky Mountain National Park supports three distinct ecosystems: montane, subalpine, and alpine tundra. The park lies between elevations of 7,000 and 14,259 feet, harboring plant communities ranging from grassland to alpine tundra. Because of the park's range in elevation — from 7,600 feet to over 14,000 feet — there is very diverse terrain, offering a wide variety of wildflowers; over 1,000 types have been documented, including the Mountain Iris, Woodlily, Elephantella, and the state flower, the Colorado Columbine.

History

Pre-European Settlement

There are numerous signs that native peoples have been visiting the area now known as Rocky Mountain National Park for nearly 12,000 years, with hundreds of prehistoric archaeological sites pointing to millennia of human activity. These first peoples, often referred to as Paleo-Indians, include groups such as the Clovis, Folsom, and Archaic peoples. Most of these groups were likely nomadic, spending periods of time hunting in the park as they traveled between the Great Plains and the large, grassy areas of Middle Park and North Park on the west side of the Continental Divide. Some hunting traps found in the tundra areas of the park are thought to be nearly 6,000 years old.

Ute and Shoshone peoples began to enter the RMNP area around 1,000 years ago, and park-like meadowlands such as present-day Estes Park became summer havens for Utes, especially those traveling to the Great Plains in search of bison. The Arapaho, who arrived in the region at the turn of the nineteenth century, included the Rockies in their cosmology, viewing the mountain range as a protective barrier constructed to shield the Arapaho from Ute and Shoshone rivals.

Euro-American Exploration and Settlement

In 1820, the Long Expedition, led by Stephen H. Long for whom Longs Peak was named, approached the Rockies via the Platte River. During the winter of 1859, Joel Estes and his twelve-year-old son Milton discovered a beautiful uninhabited valley at the base of impressive high peaks while on a hunting expedition out of Golden; in the summer of 1860, they built two cabins on the east end of the valley and brought sixty head of cattle to graze their new property. After a particularly harsh winter in 1866, Joel Estes sold the valley for a pair of oxen and moved to southern Colorado.

Settlers began arriving in the mid-1800s, displacing the Native Americans by 1878; Lulu City, Dutchtown, and Gaskill in the Never Summer Mountains were established in the 1870s when prospectors came in search of gold and silver. The boom ended by 1883, with miners deserting their claims. Today the ghost town of Lulu City, reachable by a six-mile hike from the Colorado River Trailhead, serves as a reminder of that short-lived mining era.

Establishment of the Park

The campaign to protect the area as a national park was driven largely by Enos Mills, a naturalist, author, and homesteader who settled near Longs Peak. Enos Abijah Mills (April 22, 1870 – September 21, 1922) was an American naturalist, author, and homesteader, and the main figure behind the creation of Rocky Mountain National Park. Mills led the fight to preserve the area around Longs Peak as a national park, using his speeches, writing, and photography to lobby for the park. For many years, Mills toured the country giving lectures and writing thousands of letters and articles lobbying for Congress to establish this national park.

Mills encouraged the founding of the Colorado Mountain Club in 1912, which advocated the establishment of the national park; a 1913 park recommendation by the U.S. Secretary of the Interior boosted the campaign's momentum. On January 26, 1915, President Woodrow Wilson signed the bill creating Rocky Mountain National Park on 230,000 acres between the towns of Estes Park and Grand Lake. The park was much smaller than Mills envisioned, but it expanded to its current size of 265,761 acres with the addition of the Never Summer Mountains in 1929. Several newspapers called Mills the "Father of Rocky Mountain National Park" upon the passage and signing of the Rocky Mountain National Park Act in 1915, including the Denver Post.

Construction on what was the first highway through Rocky Mountain National Park, Fall River Road, began in 1913, initially utilizing convict labor. The 1920s saw a boom in building lodges and roads in the park, culminating with the construction of Trail Ridge Road to Fall River Pass between 1929 and 1932. The log rustic-style maintenance building at the Falls River Road facility has seen little use since the opening of Trail Ridge Road in 1932.

Trail Ridge Road

Soaring to an elevation of 12,183 feet, Trail Ridge Road slices through the heart of Rocky Mountain National Park, entering a world of rare alpine beauty. Trail Ridge Road is the highest continuously paved road in the United States, reaching 12,183 feet at its summit. Forty-eight miles of pristine mountain views unfold along the route, eleven of which sit above treeline, offering spectacular scenes of Rocky Mountain National Park. Trail Ridge Road was designated by the U.S. Secretary of Transportation as an All-American Road, the highest level of designation, in 1996.

Trail Ridge derives its name from the numerous prehistoric pathways that crisscross its treeless expanse, primarily utilized by Ute Indians as thoroughfares for hunting and gathering in summer months. The road follows a path that Native Americans used for thousands of years, meandering through forests, above the tree line, and over the Continental Divide.

The Alpine Visitor Center, situated at 11,796 feet, is the highest-elevation visitor center in the National Park System. While fragrant wildflowers blanket the tundra in mid-summer, the brilliant colors of changing foliage dazzle leaf-peepers along the byway in the fall. Trail Ridge Road typically opens to through travel during the last week of May and closes in mid-October, weather permitting.

Wildlife and Ecology

More than 60 species of mammals live in the park, as well as birds, amphibians, insects, and fish. Large animals in the park include elk, black bear, mountain lions, bighorn sheep, and moose. Rocky Mountain National Park is also prime birding territory, with nearly 275 species calling the park home or using it as a migratory stopover.

Elk are among the most iconic and visible residents of the park. During the fall rut, from September through October, bull elk bugle at dawn and dusk. For the best photography lighting and opportunities to spot massive bugling elk, visitors are encouraged to head to Moraine Park just after sunrise in autumn. After facing near extinction last century, the bighorn sheep population is currently thriving, with roughly 300–400 of these striking animals in the park.

In the high alpine areas, visitors will also find elk grazing in the summer, bighorn sheep climbing boulders, furry marmots lying on the rocks sunning themselves, and little pika racing back and forth collecting vegetation for the coming winter. Throughout the park, visitors might also spot pika scrambling through alpine rocks, along with chipmunks, snowshoe hare, and tufted-ear Abert's squirrels. White-tailed ptarmigan are snowy white in the winter, and their summer features are a mottled brown that helps them blend in with lichen-splashed rocks; pygmy nuthatches flutter through pine trunks looking for seeds, while American dippers walk submerged on stream bottoms.

Congress has designated 94% of Rocky Mountain National Park as a wilderness area, protecting the majority of the park from any construction of roads, buildings, or other infrastructure. RMNP is experiencing the impacts of climate change, including more frequent and severe wildfires; notably, the 2020 Cameron Peak and East Troublesome fires burned significant portions of the park.

Visiting the Park

Located between Estes Park and Grand Lake, the 415-square-mile park draws family vacationers, hikers, wildlife watchers, rock climbers, and photographers all year; it is just under a two-hour drive from Denver and an hour's drive from Boulder. Rocky Mountain National Park is one of the premier hiking destinations in the United States, with over 350 miles (560 km) of hiking trails leading through diverse terrain. Popular activities include snowshoeing and cross-country skiing in winter, and hiking, fishing, rock climbing, and horseback riding in summer.

Rocky Mountain National Park is the fourth-most visited national park in the country and is so busy that it requires timed entry for drivers. RMNP has implemented a timed-entry permit system for the Bear Lake Road Corridor to manage visitor impact; in 2025, this system was in effect from May 23 through October 19, requiring reservations between 5 a.m. and 6 p.m.

Visitors to Rocky Mountain National Park are served by the gateway towns of Estes Park and Grand Lake; Estes Park sits at the eastern entrance to the park and provides lodging, food, shopping, and numerous activities, while Grand Lake is a much smaller community on the western edge of the national park with similar services on a quieter scale. Fishing was a popular pastime for early visitors to the park and remains so today, with anglers catching several types of trout, including brown, brook, rainbow, and cutthroat.

References

[[Category:Grand County, Colorado