Trail Ridge Road by Matthew

Wednesday's adventure began more slowly than the previous day's mountain summit. Our plan was to drive Trail Ridge Road and do a few short hikes along it. Just a few miles out of town, the road started climbing steeply and the first overlook appeared. Stunning views of the valley opened in front of us. As we stood on the metal overlook platform, Karen pointed out the clumps of golden aspen dotting the hills (she's sort of obsessed with them).

After a few pictures we continued on up the mountain road. Most of the road had at least some guard rail or stone barrier along the edge of it, but a few areas had nothing. It looked like if you went off the edge of the pavment, even by a foot, you would plunge hundreds of feet down the hillside. This made it hard to relax and enjoy the view while driving.

Further along the we came to another overlook nearly twelve thousand feet above sea level. This one had a short paved trail across the tundra. The never ending views continued to be spectacular and it was fun to try to see where we had hiked on the previous day. Another thing I found interesting along this trail was the many interpretive signs giving facts on the tundra, such as: some plants have special short hairs on them to protect them from the harsh ultra-violet light that is nearly twice as strong as at sea level (eek, better make sure I put on sunscreen); and that winds whip over 100 miles per hour here, blowing snow so violently that they get less than two inches of precipitation per year.

 

We continued on our way to another overlook.  The views continued to be incredible, however without the physical effort and challenge of climbing I was starting to get bored. No matter how amazing the views are, I can only look at them for so long.

This view never gets old... ;)

 

 From here we continued to on the Alpine Visitor Center. Although it was slightly lower than the highest point on the road, it was still the highest visitor center in the National Park System at over eleven thousand feet. Inside, the one exhibit that caught my eye was the one on the weather. They had a readout of the daily temperature, atmospheric pressure, and rainfall.  The pressure was 19.19 inches, which is only 2/3 of the standard atmosphere 29.92 inches at sea level. No wonder it is hard to breathe up there. Pass the oxygen, please...and some chips, if we could get the pressurized bag open.


Proof.

 After the visitor center, we headed back towards town. Most of the way back, we decided to take a different route, dropping into the surprisingly beautiful Horseshoe Valley. It was protected enough to have most of the golden leaves left on the Aspens. On the valley floor was a small creek with bends in it so sharp that it nearly doubled back on itself. Apparently this was how the valley got its name. This valley also had a nice protected picnic area where we had lunch. During lunch we pored over our map and planned the afternoon activities.

After looking at several larger peaks in the southwestern part of the park, we opted to head north to Glenhaven. Karen's aunt had mentioned their spectacular cinnamon rolls. When we got there we discovered that Glenhaven had beeen particularly hard hit by the historic flood of 2013. Pieces of building foundations remained amidst piles of dried mud.  The lone building on the valley floor was the Glenhaven General Store with the cinnamon rolls was saved, in part by the townspeople, but you could still see the massive damage done by the flood. The road had been repaired on numerous places where the river had washed it out. Across from the store, road commission trucks were parked inside part of an old cinder block wall that appeared to be the all that remained of a garage. Its hard to imagine the power of these flood waters.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.....

  

Although I enjoyed driving Trail Ridge Road, the scenery was amazing,  I also enjoy the challenge of climbing to a ridge or summit. Without that challenge, I felt like something was missing.