Memorable moments on the road - Trail Ridge Drive, Rocky Mountains National Park, Colorado

Traveling by road allows for infinite number of memorable experiences.. 

Some scary, some wierd, some thought provoking, some incredibly beautiful and others a combination of them all.  We've had many such experiences over the years. Our unique  experience on the Trail Ridge drive at the Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado.

Scenic overlook at the highest elevation on trail ridge drive

I will start with a general write up about the Colorado Rocky mountain National Park, before going into our experience.  The Trail Ridge drive is a unique road within the park with one lane going in each direction.  It connects the two entrance points into the Rocky Mountain National Park, Estes Park in the Northeast corner and Grand Lake on the southwest corner.  It's a winding road through the mountains that goes over and above onto the tundra areas (elevation of over 11,500 feet) where plants have stunted growth, growing short and very close to the earths surface.

Typically, parts of the drive are closed based on the snow levels at higher elevations.  There are a number of gates in both directions which are closed when the snow levels are too high to plow.  It's open all the way through only for a few months in the summer but even then one has to check the park website before making any plans to drive across. We drove on Trail Ridge drive for the first time in spring of 2004 with a friend.  We were visiting Denver before we relocated from the East coast.  The drive was closed at the first gate, we took some pictures of the kids played with the snow and we turned around and drove back to Estes Park.  

At the visitors center, we met a park ranger who said something that is stuck in my head, "This is Gods own country, if there is a heaven on earth, this is it".

The sticks on the side to help mark the road

The scenic overlook at the highest elevation is absolutely spectacular.  At just over 12,180 feet, and you have an amazing and beautiful view of the mountains.  

The beautifully maintained  road is a major accomplisment in itself.  With no trees to guide the snow plows at high elevation, there are tall sticks along the sides of the road instead.  

After our first visit, we were completely hooked on the Rocky Mountains, it fascinated and beckoned us to visit every opportunity we got.  Almost, every weekend, we would just drive on Interstate 70W taking random exits, and explore some scenic overlook or bypass, getting lost was a pretty common occurrence, but we always found our way back home. 

The corner coming down from the scenic overlook.

The mountains fascinated us, having always lived close to the sea, it was a novel experience.  I used to trek and go hiking in my college and work days but the western ghats in India were very different in comparison.   Also we were very close to the mountains, we could see the snow capped peaks from our home across the Cherry Creek State Park and it beckoned us to come explore.  

On occasion, we would drive in to Boulder, CO which is northwest of Denver, a beautiful university town, also one of the entry points into the Rocky Mountain National Park to Estes Park.  We would just drive around exploring parts we haven't been to before.  We never got tired of going back, even the kids looked forward to our impromptu visits.

Marmot sunbathing 

Here goes the story about one such impromptu visit during early fall in the second week of October.  We decided after lunch and drove on to Estes Park.  The trail ridge drive is usually closed to traffic this late in the year and one can't drive on to Grand Lake.  Also, the peak tourist season is usually over by September, so it is peaceful and quiet, very beautiful and scenic, we were totally unprepared for it to be open past the first gate.  A sign said open all the way to Grand Lake and we decided on the spur of the moment to drive on.  Not a very wise decision seeing that it was already past 3 pm and we were clueless about the road ahead, it being our first time across.

Marmot up close

We reached the higher elevations before it was dark and had the most beautiful experience ever.. there were a handful of people there and we decided to drive on to Grand Lake, on hindsight another foolish decision on our part, novices that we were to road travel, non freeways to be more exact.  The drive onward started to get very scary after the darkness came, winding, narrow, we never encountered another vehicle coming or going either way, and we were too far away to turn around and go back to Estes park. We didn't 
have a clue how far Grand Lake was, no GPS to help us, just the one road ahead.

It was us with the flora, fauna and whatever wildlife was in the surrounding areas.   Suddenly, we heard loud noises, and stopped the van, just in time to see a large elk, taller than our van standing bang in the middle of the road.. looking around we saw a group of three or four smaller elks, cows probably belonging to his harem, who stood on the right side of the road ahead of us, past the stream that ran alongside that side of road..  The huge bull Elk, a majestic creature, the alpha male, paced up and down, along the center of the road, making really loud sounds, like calling for someone..  almost touching the van at times but not threatening us in any way, it was huge, and so close, we could have touched it.  

Elks meditating

I am guessing the head lights and the tail lights allowed it greater visibility, we would never know, suddenly we heard responding call from the left side behind us and three more smaller elks walked up, all smaller in size,  there was a quick shuffle and soon they all raced to join the group on the other side, a loud call bellowed as if he was saying a 'thank you' or 'See ya' and they were gone as quickly as they came.   It was like a dream, probably lasting for 5 or 6 minutes but it seemed like an eternity, our first close encounter with creatures of the wild at night-time, one that could have done us major damage, but didn't.  Later we learnt it was rutting season and we were extremely lucky to come out of it without a horror story to tell.  We didn't have a camera on hand, but the memory will stay with us for a lifetime.

Moose grazing

We were really scared and praying for no more unexpected encounters, we were happy to reach Grand lake, it was beautiful and we were so happy to be able to see around us, just us and nature, but instead of feeling trapped in a van on a single lane winding road through the forests we were out in the open.  By the time we reached I70, the freeway that would take us home, back towards Denver it was way past midnight.  We stopped for a quick bite at the first exit and got home past 2 am.  A fantastic adventure.  One that could have gone wrong and scared us off road trips forever but instead had us wanting to travel far and wide across this beautiful country and beyond in the years to come.

Grand Lake, a lone person with dog stands out, still early in the season for tourists

One quick turn and he could have torn a hole to the side of the van in moments.. but it didn't happen and instead we have a beautiful memory to share.  This blog connects our first and last time driving on Trail Ridge Drive, the pictures are from our last trip of the Rocky mountains before we moved in August 2007.

A spectacular view of Rocky Mountains behind the Grand Lake

More memorable experiences coming up in the next blog.