Trail Ridge Road and the Old Fall River Road
Near Estes Park, Colorado
West of Estes Park, two remarkable roads climb into the sky, and their story is really the story of how people first drove into these mountains. The older of the two is the Old Fall River Road. It was the first automobile road to penetrate the interior of Rocky Mountain National Park, opened in nineteen twenty.
The first three miles were carved out by about thirty eight Colorado state prison inmates using little more than hand tools. It is a narrow, one way, mostly dirt road that follows the Fall River up past waterfalls to the top of the Continental Divide, and it still runs today at a gentle fifteen miles per hour. Its more famous successor is Trail Ridge Road, which opened in the early nineteen thirties and quickly became the star attraction.
Trail Ridge is the highest continuous paved road in the United States, climbing to twelve thousand one hundred eighty three feet above sea level as it crosses the park between Estes Park and Grand Lake. For about eight miles it runs above tree line, through open alpine tundra where it is simply too cold and windy for trees to grow. Along the way sits the Alpine Visitor Center, the highest visitor center in the entire National Park Service.
Because of deep snow, both roads are only open in the warmer months, so plan accordingly.
