Rocky Mountain National Park - Colorado

Established January 26, 1915

265,757 acres

Nowhere else in the United States can a visitor see so much alpine country with such ease. Only 2 hours' drive from Denver, Trail Ridge Road takes visitors into the heart of Rocky Mountain National Park, traversing a ridge above 11,000 feet for 10 miles. Along the way, tiny tundra flowers contrast with sweeping vistas of towering summits; 78 of them exceed 12,000 feet. Alpine lakes reflect the grandeur.

The summits form at least the third generation of mountains to rise in this region. The first probably protruded as islands above a shallow sea more than 135 million years ago, when dinosaurs reigned. Another range grew out of a later sea some 75 million years ago. Over the eons these summits eroded to rolling hills, which rose once again, although unevenly: Some portions sank along fault lines, helping create the striking texture of the current scenery.

Rock as old as that at the bottom of the Grand Canyon—nearly two billion years—caps the Rockies' summits. Within the last million years, glaciers, grinding boulders beneath them, carved deep canyons. Erosion later scoured the more jagged summits into their present profiles.

Rocky Mountain, though only about '/„ the size of Yellowstone, accommodates nearly as many visitors—3.3 million or more a year. In 1917 a superintendent promoted the park by hiring a young woman to live off the land, clad in a leopard-skin; visitation soared. But today overcrowding worries park officials to visit: Elk move to lower elevations, and you can hear their mating bugles. The tundra turns crimson early in the month; aspens turn golden later. In the winter there is skiing and snowshoeing.