Home Up

Last Update:  07/20/2010

Rocky Mountain National Park ~250 miles

Trail Ridge Road

[click map for larger view]

SUMMARY: 

Version 1 -- Prepare for a most awesome day if you do this ride to Rocky Mountain National Park and ride Trail Ridge Road, the highest continuous paved road (over 12,000 feet) in the Continental United States.  You'll head east from Frisco on I-70 and then head north on the Peak-to-Peak Highway.  The P2P Highway runs through the higher foothills with beautiful views of the high peaks to the west.  Upon arriving in Estes Park you can take either US-36 or US-34 into RMNP (both are beautiful and US-36 joins US-34 in the Park), then taking US-34 Trail Ridge Road, hopefully seeing some nice Fall Aspen colors, to the RMNP high-country.   Soaring to an elevation of 12,183 feet, Trail Ridge Road seems to leave the earth behind.  It slices through the heart of RMNP, entering a world of rare alpine beauty.  Distant peaks loom in all directions, perhaps with some fresh snow covering the highest peaks.  Sharp-eyed observers can usually spy elk, bighorn sheep, and other wildlife traversing the meadows and crags.  Higher than any paved through-road in the country, this cliff-hugging highway is as impressive for its engineering as for its stunning vistas.  You cannot find a road like this one anywhere outside of Colorado.  A beautiful ride continues as you drop down into Grand Lake, always a great place for lunch (or perhaps you did lunch in Estes Park).  If you do this as a loop ride, you will then continue a nice ride along Shadow Mountain Lake and Lake Granby, then following the headwaters of the Colorado River and the Blue River as you head back to Frisco.   At the end of the day you'll still be saying Wow, Wow, Wow!!!

Version 2 -- For this version you do not do this ride as a loop, but instead enter Rocky Mountain National Park from the west (Grand Lake) and then reverse your track after lunch in Estes Park, riding back west over Trail Ridge Road, taking US-34 or US-36 (whichever one you did not do earlier in the day), back to Grand Lake, and on to Frisco.  If you did US-34 in the morning and do US-36 in the afternoon, you may have time to take the side leg off US-36 up to Bear Lake, a very beautiful and most special spot. 

 

GPS Data Files:

[NOTE:  After downloading these files to your computer, you need to re-calculate the route in MapSource or your software before transferring them to your GPS.]

bullet

Garmin GPS data file with all Frisco Routes and Waypoints (should work in most Garmin GPS units, but you will need to have your GPS recalculate the route using these points.

bullet

Click here to download a GPS Exchange data file with all Frisco Routes and Waypoints (should work in most GPS units, but you will need to have the GPS recalculate the route using these points)

bullet

This ride is included in the GPS files in both a clockwise and counter-clockwise direction -- both are very good (version 1 description above).  Version 2, above, is also included as "RMNP Primary"; if you do not plan to do the "Poudre Canyon" ride, then you definitely want to do Version 1 in the CW or CCW direction so that you can include the P2P highway.

Directions:

bullet

Holiday Inn > I-70 east > CO-119 north (Blackhawk/Exit 244) > Blackhawk > Nederland > CO-72 north > Raymond > CO-7 north/west > Estes Park (lunch in either Estes Park or Grand Lake; take either US-34 or US-36 into the park -- they combine into US-34; if time permits, a side trip to Bear Lake is recommended) > US-34 west > Trail Ridge Road > Park exit > CO-278 into Grand Lake (lunch if you did not do it in Estes Park) > return to US-34 west > Granby > US-40 west > Hot Sulphur Springs > Byers Canyon > Kremmling > CO-9 south > Silverthorne > I-70 west > Exit 203 > Holiday Inn

Photos From The RMNP Ride