Highway to the Sky - Estes Park, Colorado

Mountains have always beckoned to me, perhaps because I am from the Midwest where at best we have some rolling hills. I first fell in love with the mountains when some relatives moved to the Denver area and we went for a visit in the 70s. Since then, every trip to see the relatives also includes a day in the mountains.

On my last trip my cousin and I spent the better part of the day driving to Estes Park and then driving the Trail Ridge Road through Rocky Mountain National Park. Trail Ridge Road is 48 miles long and crosses the continental divide. Trail Ridge Road reaches a maximum elevation of 12,183 ft and is the highest paved continuous highway in the United States. 

"It is hard to describe what a sensation this new road is going to make," predicted Horace Albright, director of the National Park Service, in 1931 during the road's construction. "You will have the whole sweep of the Rockies before you in all directions."

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. You really notice the thin air at this elevation. Just walking a short distance can get you huffing and puffing in no time.

The scenery along the way was breathtaking and we stopped at several overlooks along the way to enjoy the view.

See that tan slice through the mountain on the right and the other lines at it's base? That's the road that we've been driving on.

I'm always amazed to see snow in the mountains even on a hot summer day. At this elevation it's windy and 20 to 30 degrees cooler than it was in Estes Park.

Our drive was a great adventure and we enjoyed watching the scenery change at the different elevations. The experience, as Horace Albright suggested more than a half century ago, is hard to describe.