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Rocky Mountain National Park: Continental Divide
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Set atop the Continental Divide, Rocky Mountain National Park draws nearly as many visitors as the much larger Yellowstone. It includes the headwaters of the Colorado River and dozens of peaks above 12,000 feet (3,658 meters). Lower-elevation meadows and evergreen forests give way above 11,000 feet (3,353 meters) to a brutal Arcticlike climate where trees cannot survive. Tundra wildflowers do, though, and they cover the rolling landscape. Within the park bighorn sheep, moose, marmots, and muskrats range, while golden eagles and hawks soar overhead.
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Rocky Mountain National Park lays along the Front Range, one of more than 100 mountain ranges which comprise the Rocky Mountains. The park contains 113 peaks over 10,000 feet and 78 exceeding 12,000 feet in altitude. These peaks are steep and jagged, sculpted by glaciers. The Continental Divide runs in a northwesterly direction through the park.
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Rocky Mountain National Park, one of the crown jewels of the National Park System, is located in northeastern Colorado. The diverse and beautiful expanse of pristine backcountry provides a stunning introduction to the Rocky Mountains with access to peaks along the Continental Divide, breathtaking views and myriad opportunities for exploration and discovery.
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Rocky Mountain National Park encompasses approximately 265,770 acres (1,076 km²) of land in Colorado's northern Front Range. The park is split by the Continental Divide, which gives the eastern and western portions of the park a different character. The east side of the park tends to be dryer, with heavily glaciated peaks and cirques. The west side of the park is wetter and more lush, with deep forests dominating.
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You don't have to go to ROCKY MOUNTAIN NATIONAL PARK to appreciate the full splendor of the Rockies; it is simply one small section of the mighty range, measuring roughly twenty-five by fifteen miles. A tenth of the size of Yellowstone, it attracts the same number of visitors - around three-and-a-half million per year - and with the bulk of those coming in high summer, the one main road through the mountains can get incredibly congested. However, it is undeniably beautiful, straddling the Continental Divide at elevations often well in excess of ten thousand feet. A full third of the park is above the tree line, and large areas of snow never melt; the name of the Never Summer Mountains speaks volumes about the long, empty expanses of arctic-style tundra. Lower down, among the rich forests, are patches of lush greenery; you never know when you may stumble upon a sheltered mountain meadow flecked with flowers. Parallels with the European Alps spring readily to mind - helped, of course, by the heavy-handed Swiss and Bavarian themes of the region's motels and restaurants.
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Sixty-five miles northwest of Denver in the middle of Colorado, right on the eastern edge of the Rockies, is the Rocky Mountain National Park. Established in 1915, the area became the nation's tenth national park. Bisected by the Continental Divide, the park contains more than a hundred mountain peaks rising over ten-thousand feet. More than one-third of this park lies above treeline. One of the highest paved roads in America crosses open alpine tundra with spectacular panoramic views of distant peaks.
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Continental Divide