Alan Leftridge - The Best of Rocky Mountain National Park

The word park has several meanings. The American Heritage Dictionary lists 10 nuances. How does the word apply here?

Rocky Mountain National Park is an area of land kept in its natural state for public recreational use.

Moraine Park is a broad, flat, open pocket of land in a mountainous region.

Estes Park is a broad, flat, open pocket of land in a mountainous region, and also the name of the town located in that park.

• President Woodrow Wilson signed the legislation that established Rocky as the tenth national park on January 26, 1915.
• The park covers 415 square miles or 265,761 acres.
• The highest point in the park is Longs Peak at 14,259 feet above sea level. The lowest elevation is 7,860 feet.
• The park has more than 60 peaks over 12,000 feet.
• Treeline in the park is at approximately 11,500 feet; more than one-third of the park is above this height.
• There are about 355 miles of hiking trails.
• The park has 147 named lakes and 473 miles of streams.
• Wildlife species includes 66 mammals, 280 birds, 5 amphibians, and 1 reptile (a garter snake).
• The National Park Service estimates more than 1,000 species of flowering plants live in Rocky.
• Rocky Mountain National Park holds the headwaters of the Colorado, Big Thompson, Cache la Poudre, and Fall Rivers.
• Annual visitation exceeds 3 million, with July the busiest month and March the quietest.
• Rocky Mountain National Park is open 24 hours a day, every day of the year (some roads close in winter).

What kind of weather should you expect when you come to Rocky? That depends, of course, on the season of your visit. Keep in mind that most of Rocky is a high-elevation alpine park. Winter-like weather can happen year-round!

If you are visiting during summer, be prepared for mild days with temperatures reaching the 80s, and cool nights into the 40s. Afternoon thunderstorms can produce lightning, hail, and high winds. Many of these thunderstorms are convection-type, which build with little notice and produce violent weather. A cloudless morning can turn to an unsettled afternoon with little notice.

You may want to visit during autumn, when the weather is relatively dry, with cool, cloudless days and crisp, starlit nights. Aspen leaves turn to liquid gold, and the bugling of bull elk echoes from the mountainsides. Expect high temperatures in the 50s and nighttime lows in the 30s. Wet snow can begin falling by mid-October, so expect Trail Ridge Road to close, but touring Bear Lake Road can be a highlight of your holiday.

Visitation during winter drops to the annual low, and so do the temperatures. The tundra experiences -35F temperatures with blizzard conditions and deep snowpack in downwind areas. High elevations can pile several feet of snow, while low-lying valleys may accumulate only a few inches. The park west of the Continental Divide typically receives a lot of snow, while the eastern side of the divide gets less precipitation.