Rocky Mountain National Park (Part 2)

In 1876, Lord Dunraven commissioned Albert Bierstadt to paint Longs Peak and Estes Park. Bierstadt traveled with Theodore Whyte, the Earl's associate, to find the best vantage point and identify a suitable site for the construction of a hotel. One lake that caught the painter’s eye now bears his name and his painting of Bierstadt Lake is now in the Denver Art Museum's collection. In 1877, Lord Dunraven opened the English Hotel and Lodge, later called the Estes Park Hotel, and tourism increased to Estes Park following the 1881 extension of the Denver, Utah and Pacific Railroad to Lyons, CO. Lord Dunraven began leasing his lands just two years later and visited the area for the last time in the mid-1880s. Rising taxes, land disputes, lawsuits, and increasing responsibilities to Queen Victoria through his appointment as Undersecretary for the Colonies in 1885 likely all played a role in the Earl leaving Estes Park.

Cirques are steep semicircular basins formed by glacial erosion at the top of glaciated valleys. Since the Quaternary Ice Age began 2.58 million years ago, the top of this valley has accumulated hundreds of feet of snow and ice on multiple occasions. Glaciers formed when the weight of the snow and ice became great enough for the mass to slowly advance downwards. Over time, several glaciers carved out Fall River Cirque as well as the broad U-shaped valley below. The Fall River Glacier most recently receded from here about 15,000 years ago.

In 1904, Big Thompson Canyon Road was completed from Loveland to Estes Park. Freelan Oscar Stanley, who invented the Stanley Steamer with his brother Francis Edgar Stanley, set up stage lines using the automobiles to transport tourists from Loveland to Estes Park in 1907. That same year, he and B.D. Sanborn purchased the lands and interests owned by Lord Dunraven. In 1909, Stanley set up Stanley Steamer stage lines to Lyons, constructed the Fall River Hydro-Plant, which brought electricity to Estes Park for the first time, and opened the Stanley Hotel. He is remembered as "the man who brought the modern tourist business to Estes Park."

Old Fall River Road was the first automobile road to navigate over the Continental Divide in the park, connecting Estes Park in the east with Grand Lake in the west. It runs one-way westward and its path follows an old trail used by the Arapaho known as Dog Trail. Construction on the road began in 1913 and utilized convict labor until an outside contractor was hired in 1916. Insufficient funding significantly delayed progress but Fall River Road was finally completed in 1920. The steep grades and tight curves of the one-lane road terrified visitors and it remained open for short seasons due to snowpack. However, development of a better alternative was delayed until Colorado ceded jurisdiction over roads in the park to the federal government in 1929. In 1932, Trail Ridge Road became the primary route through the park. In 1953, Fall River Road closed due to a rockslide and it remained closed until 1968 when the NPS cleared the route and paved the eastern third of the road. Much of Fall River Road was washed away by the Colorado floods of 2013 but it was repaired and reopened in 2015.

Alpine Ridge Trail is colloquially known as “Huffers Hill” because its maximum altitude of 12,005 feet above sea level tends to leave hikers gasping for air. As altitude increases, air pressure decreases and molecules are spread further apart so less oxygen is taken in with each breath.

Although many were involved in the movement to establish a national park in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, Enos Abijah Mills is undoubtedly the most important. Mills moved to Estes Park in 1884 when he was only 14, and by 1886, he built himself a small cabin at the foot of Longs Peak. Already an avid outdoorsman, an unplanned meeting with naturalist John Muir on a San Francisco beach in 1889 inspired Mills to take up conservation activism, lecturing, and writing. He camped in every state in the Union as well as Mexico, Canada, and Alaska by 1902 and climbed Longs Peak over 250 times during his lifetime, many times as a guide. In 1907, he was hired as an independent lecturer for the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), which managed the Front Range as part of Medicine Bow National Forest. In 1909, the USFS sought to establish a game refuge there but Mills countered with the proposal for "Estes National Park” instead. However, those involved in the mining, grazing, and logging industries generally opposed the idea of a national park that would restrict commercial activity. In 1910, Mills gained the support of J. Horace McFarland, President of the American Civic Association, for the creation of Rocky Mountain National Park. Mary King Sherman also campaigned for the park, advocating outdoor education for better health and an increased sense of civic duty. Over more than five years, Mills wrote several essays promoting the Rocky Mountains of Colorado for national magazines that were compiled and published in the books Wild Life on the Rockies (1909), The Spell of the Rockies (1911), In Beaver World (1913), and Rocky Mountain Wonderland (1915). Mills gathered further support by traveling across the country and giving speeches about the beauty of the Estes Park area.

In 1912, attorney James Grafton Rogers founded the Colorado Mountain Club which would create the first outline for the proposed park boundaries and draft each of the park bills introduced in Congress. In 1914, the Colorado Mountain Club invited Arapaho elders Gun Griswold and Sherman Sage back to the area to record traditional site names for inclusion in maps of the proposed park prepared by the U.S. Geological Society. Some names derived from this work include the Nokhu Crags ("Rocks Where the Eagles Nest"), Kawuneechee Valley (“Valley of the Coyote”), and Mount Neota ("Bighorn Sheep Mountain").

In 1915, President Woodrow Wilson signed a bill establishing Rocky Mountain National Park as the 10th national park in the country. Fall River Road was completed in 1920. In 1926, Estes Park dedicated a plaque to the Estes family at their former cabin. Construction on Trail Ridge Road began in 1929. It was opened after reaching Fall River Pass in 1932 and was completed through the Kawuneeche Valley to Grand Lake in 1933. The 48-mile road follows the path of Child’s Trail, which was historically used by the Ute. With a peak elevation of 12,183 feet, Trail Ridge Road is the highest continuously paved road in the United States. Between 1933-1942 the Civilian Conservation Corps completed myriad park development and maintenance projects. In 1976, UNESCO designated the park as one of the first World Biosphere Reserves.

Almost one-third of Rocky Mountain National Park is alpine tundra, a cold, treeless, relatively dry biome in high elevations with long winters and short growing seasons. The transition area, or ecotone, where subalpine forests shift to treeless tundra is called the treeline. Above the treeline, the average temperature of the warmest month is below 50°F and trees cannot grow. Tundra in the park starts at around 11,400 feet. Areas with a permanently frozen subsurface soil layer known as permafrost were once widespread in the park but are now very limited. 

At 11,796 feet, Alpine Visitor Center is the highest visitor center in the National Park System. Electricity is supplied by a diesel generator, sewage is hauled away to a treatment facility every day, and snowmelt collected at a dam below is treated and stored for water. Trail Ridge Road reaches its highest elevation of 12,183 feet just one mile to the east. The other end of Ute Trail starts at the parking lot and veers off to the right.

These moccasins and the beaded bag are Ute artifacts on display at Alpine Visitor Center.

The Gore Range pullout provides a view of the Never Summer Mountains. Along the Never Summer Mountains, the Continental Divide takes an unusual horseshoe-shaped bend for about 6 miles. This causes streams on the eastern slopes to flow south and west to join the Colorado River while streams on the western slopes join north-flowing rivers that then head east and south.

At 14,259 feet, Longs Peak is the highest mountain in the park and is highly visible throughout much of the area.  

The Lava Cliffs are comprised of volcanic rock formed around 28 million years ago from a large ash and pumice flow.

Tundra Communities Trail travels through an alpine fellfield, a treeless rock-strewn area above the treeline dominated by cushion plants, grasses, and sedges. Strong sunlight and winter winds that can reach 170 miles per hour prevent much snow from accumulating here.