If you time it right, the east face of Longs Peak lit up at sunrise will be your reward in the final mile of the trail leading to Chasm Lake (Hike 24).

VISITING ROCKY MOUNTAIN NATIONAL PARK

Dating back almost to its establishment as a national park in 1915, Rocky Mountain National Park has made the alpine accessible to everyone, whether we want to climb a mountain under our own power or not. The park’s crown of Continental Divide peaks, rising 6000-plus feet (1829 m) above the gateway town of Estes Park (elevation 7522 feet/2293 m) on its east edge, can be seen up close with just a short drive from town. Trail Ridge Road, completed in 1932, makes it possible for anyone with access to a car to take in a view of the mountains from higher than 12,000 feet (3658 m), see the flora and fauna of the alpine tundra environment, and watch a thunderstorm roll in over the tops of the Rocky Mountains to the west.

For the 82 percent of park visitors who arrive from the east, the mountains of the park mark the beginning of the Rocky Mountains; it’s the far eastern edge of the high terrain that runs across the Lower 48 from Mexico to Canada, where the plains rise up thousands of feet into majestic peaks. The park is home to megafauna, like elk, moose, and black bears, as well as animals unique to alpine environments, including yellow-bellied marmot and bighorn sheep. Park visitors have a chance to take in the high-altitude scenery and wildlife without stepping more than a half mile from a car, and can also walk for days into the mountain wilderness, miles from the nearest road. Elk on the east side of the park, accustomed to humans and cars, can be seen grazing on the fairways of the Estes Park Golf Course, while elk high on the west side of the park seem wary of the rare human hiking through alpine tundra.

This book celebrates the accessibility of the park’s mountains by curating a variety of hikes, from stroller-friendly walks around lakes to high-altitude peak-bagging adventures, all within a short drive of a post-hike pizza, beer, or ice cream cone back in civilization afterward—or a seat in a camp chair in front of a fire in one of the park’s campgrounds.

HUMAN HISTORY

The human history of the area we’ve called Rocky Mountain National Park for the past hundred years goes back to the time the glaciers that had covered the area receded, roughly eleven thousand years ago. Using the route that is now Trail Ridge Road, early humans hunted mammoth and, later, bison. Sometime between ad 1000 and 1300, Ute people moved into the area, although never permanently, and dominated until the early 1800s, when they were pushed out by the Arapaho people. The Ute and Arapaho people used the Ute Trail to move to and from the Great Plains, where they hunted bison. The Arapaho left the area prior to the 1860s, when white settlers began to arrive.

In 1803, the United States government claimed the land through the Louisiana Purchase, and the 1800s brought the first exploration by non-indigenous peoples, including hopeful miners, homesteaders, and hunters, and with them, tourists. Around the turn of the twentieth century, the movement to preserve wild lands in the United States gained momentum, and by 1909, local guide and lodge owner Enos Mills began a campaign of lecturing, letter writing, and lobbying to establish a national park in the area—what would be the tenth US national park. The efforts of Mills and other advocates paid off in 1915, when President Woodrow Wilson signed the Rocky Mountain National Park Act, officially protecting the park, then 358 square miles (927 square km). Through acquisitions and donations since the park’s creation, it has since grown to the 415 square miles (1075 square km) it covers today.

A hiker passes through a stand of aspens on the trail to Bridal Veil Falls (Hike 15).

A marker along the Tundra Communities Trail (Hike 27) displays the distance to other national parks.