Colorado
Rocky Mountain National Park
Rocky Mountain National Park is a study in altitude and access. Ancient Indigenous travel routes crossed the Continental Divide long before tourists arrived; glaciers carved the valleys; homesteaders and dude ranchers built lives in the high country; and engineers later drove Trail Ridge Road across the tundra. This guide follows those layers while treating elk, rivers, dams and visitor infrastructure as parts of one changing mountain system.
Stories in Rocky Mountain National Park
- Beaver Meadows Visitor Center — Modernism Enters the National Park
- Moraine Park — The Glacier Left a Meadow Behind
- Bear Lake — Scenic Access and the Cost of Popularity
- Trail Ridge Road — Engineering Across the Tundra
- Milner Pass — The Continental Divide Is a Water Decision
- Holzwarth Historic Site — A Homestead Becomes a Dude Ranch
- Kawuneeche Valley — Headwaters, Elk and an Older Travel Corridor
- Alluvial Fan — The Day a Dam Failure Rewrote the Valley