Trail Ridge Road Reopens

Every winter Trail Ridge Road closes due to heavy snow and strong winds at higher elevations. In late May, when Rocky Mountain National Park announced that the road was plowed and completely open, David and I made plans to drive it the following weekend.

We have been to this park more times than I can count, but this was a different experience. We see the snow-capped mountains from our house in the plains of Colorado, but driving in between them at 12,000 feet was breathtaking. It was also a little nerve-wracking driving beside the large snowdrifts… in some areas the snow was double the height of our car!

When we reached the Alpine Visitor Center, part the building was still covered in snow. And a giant wall of ice triple the size of my height shielded the once expansive view down the valley. We decided to turn around here and make our way back down. We made a quick stop at the Alluvial Fan where we watched a few elk make their way through the mountainside, and a group of big-horned sheep climbing the rocks high above the falls.

It really is amazing watching a national park transform throughout the year. Rocky Mountain truly looks so different each season, and we’re lucky we get to see it.