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Trail Ridge Road is the name for the stretch of
U.S. Highway 34 U.S. Route 34 (US 34) is an east–west United States highway that runs for from north-central Colorado to the western suburbs of Chicago. Through Rocky Mountain National Park it is known as the Trail Ridge Road where it reaches elevation , ...
that traverses
Rocky Mountain National Park Rocky Mountain National Park is an American national park located approximately northwest of Denver in north-central Colorado, within the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains. The park is situated between the towns of Estes Park to the east and ...
from
Estes Park, Colorado Estes Park is a statutory town in Larimer County, Colorado, United States. The town population was 5,904 at the 2020 United States Census. Estes Park is a part of the Fort Collins, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Front Range Urban Cor ...
in the east to
Grand Lake, Colorado The Town of Grand Lake is a statutory town located in Grand County, Colorado, United States. The town population was 410 at the 2020 United States Census. History Established in 1881, Grand Lake sits at an elevation of and derives its name fr ...
in the west. Together with the connecting Beaver Meadow Road ( U.S. Highway 36), Trail Ridge Road forms the
Trail Ridge Road/Beaver Meadow National Scenic Byway The Trail Ridge Road/Beaver Meadow National Scenic Byway is a All-American Road and Colorado Scenic and Historic Byway located in Rocky Mountain National Park in Larimer and Grand counties, Colorado, USA. The byway consists of the Trail Ridg ...
, an
All-American Road A National Scenic Byway is a road recognized by the United States Department of Transportation for one or more of six "intrinsic qualities": archeological, cultural, historic, natural, recreational, and scenic. The program was established by Co ...
. With a high point at elevation, Trail Ridge Road is the highest continuous paved road in North America. The higher portion of Trail Ridge Road is closed from October to May.


Route description

From Kawuneeche Visitor Center at the park's Grand Lake Entrance, Trail Ridge Road follows the North Fork of the
Colorado River The Colorado River ( es, Río Colorado) is one of the principal rivers (along with the Rio Grande) in the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico. The river drains an expansive, arid watershed that encompasses parts of seven U.S. s ...
north through the Kawuneeche Valley. There are several trailheads along this section of the road, notably the Colorado River Trailhead, which is the western terminus of the road segment closed during the winter. The road crosses the
Continental Divide A continental divide is a drainage divide on a continent such that the drainage basin on one side of the divide feeds into one ocean or sea, and the basin on the other side either feeds into a different ocean or sea, or else is endorheic, not c ...
at
Milner Pass Milner Pass, elevation is a mountain pass in the Rocky Mountains of northern Colorado in the United States. It is located on the continental divide in the Front Range, within Rocky Mountain National Park, along the boundary between Larimer an ...
(elev. ) and reaches a maximum elevation of , near
Fall River Pass Fall River Pass (elevation ) is a mountain pass in northern Colorado, in the Rocky Mountains of the western United States. It is located in the Front Range, within Rocky Mountain National Park. The pass is traversed by U.S. Highway 34 on Trail R ...
(elev. ). Near the highest point on the road is another pass, Iceberg Pass (elev. ). According to construction contracts and park maintenance files the east end of the road is located at the
Fall River Fall River is a city in Bristol County, Massachusetts, Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States. The City of Fall River's population was 94,000 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 United States Census, making it the List of municipaliti ...
Entrance, however some guides state that earlier - at Deer Ridge Junction. Trail Ridge is a high flat spur range extending east from the main range of the Rockies between Fall River in the North and the
Big Thompson River The Big Thompson River is a tributary of the South Platte River, approximately 78 miles (123 km) long, in the U.S. state of Colorado. Originating in Forest Canyon in Rocky Mountain National Park, the river flows into Lake Estes in the tow ...
in the South. The road follows Trail Ridge from the Fall River Pass near Alpine Visitor Center to the Deer Ridge Junction.


History

Trail Ridge had been used by Native Americans to cross the mountains between their home lands in the west and hunting areas on the east side. Arapahoe Indians called the trail located on the ridge as "taienbaa" ("Where the Children Walked") because it was so steep that children could not be carried, but had to walk. The
Ute tribe Ute () are the Indigenous people of the Ute tribe and culture among the Indigenous peoples of the Great Basin. They had lived in sovereignty in the regions of present-day Utah and Colorado in the Southwestern United States for many centuries unt ...
crossing the mountains at Forest Canyon Pass marked their route with stone
cairn A cairn is a man-made pile (or stack) of stones raised for a purpose, usually as a marker or as a burial mound. The word ''cairn'' comes from the gd, càrn (plural ). Cairns have been and are used for a broad variety of purposes. In prehi ...
s. The present park Ute Trail follows partially that ancient route. On the west side, about 1880, a
wagon A wagon or waggon is a heavy four-wheeled vehicle pulled by draught animals or on occasion by humans, used for transporting goods, commodities, agricultural materials, supplies and sometimes people. Wagons are immediately distinguished from ...
road was constructed along the Kawuneeche Valley from the town of Grand Lake to the mining camps of Lulu City and Gaskill. The camps were abandoned after a few years when short-lived mining boom ended and later the road was used only occasionally by hunters and tourists.
Fall River Road The Old Fall River Road, sometimes referred to as "The Old Road" by park staff in Rocky Mountain National Park, was the first automobile road to penetrate the interior of the park. The road linked the east side of the park near Estes Park with G ...
was the first road into the park's high country. It opened in 1921 and quickly proved inadequate for motor travel as a single-track road with steep grades (up to 16%), tight curves and a short annual season due to snowpack. Construction began in 1929 and was complete to Fall River Pass by July 1932, with a maximum grade of 7%. The road was complete through the Kawuneeche Valley to Grand Lake in 1938. The route followed what was known to local
Arapaho The Arapaho (; french: Arapahos, ) are a Native American people historically living on the plains of Colorado and Wyoming. They were close allies of the Cheyenne tribe and loosely aligned with the Lakota and Dakota. By the 1850s, Arapaho ba ...
Indians as the Dog Trail. Internal opposition to the construction of a road through the park's
alpine tundra Alpine tundra is a type of natural region or biome that does not contain trees because it is at high elevation, with an associated harsh climate. As the latitude of a location approaches the poles, the threshold elevation for alpine tundra gets ...
was overruled by
National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational properti ...
director
Horace Albright Horace Marden Albright (January 6, 1890 – March 28, 1987) was an American conservationist. Horace Albright was born in 1890 in Bishop, California, the son of George Albright, a miner. He graduated from the University of California, Berkeley ...
, who wished to encourage park visitation. The road was designed to intrude as little as possible into the landscape, in accordance with Park Service design principles. Hidden Valley (or Ski Estes Park) was a local ski area attraction from 1955 - 1991, off of Trail Ridge Road, now defunct.Colorado Ski History: ''Hidden Valley''
(Ski Estes Park)


See also

*
National Register of Historic Places listings in Larimer County, Colorado __NOTOC__ This is a list of the National Register of Historic Places listings in Larimer County, Colorado. This is intended to be a complete list of the properties and districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Larimer County, Colo ...


References


External links


Rocky Mountain National Park

Trail Ridge Road/Beaver Meadow Road Overview
on the National Scenic Byways website
Trail Ridge Road
on the Colorado Scenic Byways website * {{coord, 40.4177, -105.7467, dim:50000_region:US-CO_type:pass, name=Trail Ridge Road Summit, Colorado, USA, display=title Colorado scenic drives Transportation in Grand County, Colorado Transportation in Larimer County, Colorado All-American Roads National Register of Historic Places in Rocky Mountain National Park Toll roads in Colorado U.S. Route 34 Roads on the National Register of Historic Places in Colorado Estes Park, Colorado Historic American Engineering Record in Colorado National Register of Historic Places in Larimer County, Colorado