Rocky Mountain National Park

File:Moraine Park-1.jpg

Moraine Park and the headwaters of the Big Thompson River are in Rocky Mountain National Park

Rocky Mountain National Park is a national park and wildlife refuge area within the United States National Park System.

Rocky Mountain National Park features majestic mountain views, a variety of wildlife, varied climates and environments—from wooded forests to mountain tundra—and easy access to back-country trails and campsites. The park is located north-west of Boulder, Colorado in the Colorado Rockies, and includes the Continental Divide and the headwaters of the Colorado River in its land area.

The park has five visitor centers. The park headquarters, Beaver Meadows Visitor Center, is a National Historic Landmark, designed by the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture at Taliesin West. [1]

The park is accessed by three roads, U.S. Highway 34 and 36, and Colorado State Highway 7. State Highway 7 enters the park for less than a mile, where it provides access to the Lily Lake Visitor Center. 36 enters the park on the east side, where it terminates after a few miles at 34. 34, known as Trail Ridge Road through the park, runs from the town of Estes Park, Colorado on the east to Grand Lake, Colorado on the south west. The road gets up to 12183 feet elevation, and is closed in the winter due to snow.

Longs Peak is the only fourteener in the park.

The park is surrounded by Roosevelt National Forest on the north and east, Routt National Forest on the northwest, and Arapaho National Forest on the southwest.

Sites of interest

• Alpine Visitor's Center
• Bear Lake
• Chasm Lake
• Grand Lake

External links

1. Rocky Mountain National Park official website
2. Rocky Mountain National Park - National Parks Gallery
3. Photos of Rocky Mountain National Park - Terra Galleria