Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
ROCKY MOUNTAIN NATIONAL PARK
Though Rocky Mountain National Park doesn't rank among the largest national parks in
the USA (it's
only
265,000 acres), it's rightly among one of the most popular, hosting four
million visitors every year.
This is a place of natural spectacle on every scale: from hulking granite formations -
many taller than 12,000ft, some over 130 million years old - to the delicate yellow burst of
the glacier lily, one of the dozen alpine wildflowers that explode in a short, colorful life at
the edge of receding snowfields for a few days every spring.
And though it tops many travelers' itineraries and can get maddeningly crowded, the
park has miles of less-beaten paths, and the backcountry is a little-explored nature-lovers'
wonderland. It's surrounded by some of the most pristine wild area in the west: Comanche
Peak and Neota Wilderness Areas in the Roosevelt National Forest to the north and Indian
Peaks Wilderness to the south. The jagged spine of the Continental Divide intersects the
park through its middle. Excellent hiking trails crisscross alpine fields, skirt the edge of
isolated high-altitude lakes and bring travelers to the wild, untamed heart of the Rockies.
