Pic: Although there’s no crosswalk, this young North American elk bull has the right of way. Trail Ridge Road, Rocky Mountain NP, CO
After a lot of walking yesterday, I was happy to take a break with one of the country’s epic scenic drives. The Trail Ridge Road is another legacy of the Park Service of the 1930s, an organization that brought public access to wondrous natural beauty through infrastructure development while remaining mindful of aesthetics.
Here my “too early” timing for Colorado proved useful, as the only-just-cleared-of-snow highway wasn’t too crowded. I survived my first three elk jams! The males were quite fetching with their new velvet-covered antlers.
The views from the frequent pullouts became more and more incredible as the road climbed and climbed past long sloping valleys toward the the roofbeam of the continental United States[1]. Topping out at 12,183′, the eleven miles of asphalt above treeline felt like driving on another planet thanks to the peculiar quality of the sunlight, the noticeably thinner air, and the sense that the whole planet lay splayed out below.
Stones Peak from Trail Ridge Road, Rocky Mountain NP, CO
[1] This seems like as good a place as any to remind smug Coloradans that the highest point in the lower 48 is in California: Mt. Whitney in the Eastern Sierra. : )
Danger Beyond This Point 