Rocky Mountain National Park

Rocky Mountain National Park is a US national park in northern Colorado. It is part of the Colorado Front Range, which is the easternmost mountain range of the southern Rocky Mountains, along the Continental Divide of North America. The 358 square mile (927 square kilometer) park includes more than 300 miles (482 kilometers) of hiking trails through alpine and subalpine regions, including Trail Ridge Road, which reaches an elevation of 12,183 feet (3,713 meters). The vantage points on the trail offer stargazers exceptional views of the night sky.

The park includes several historic sites, hundreds of miles of streams, and multiple lakes. About four million visitors a year on average enjoy birdwatching, hiking, camping, wildlife viewing, fishing, and other activities in the park.

Background

The oldest rocks in the park are 1.7 billion years old. These rocks include sandstone with volcanic granites and sedimentary shale. A number of natural events, including tectonic activity, shaped the land and formed the ancestral Rocky Mountains through compression, folding, and uplift. These deformations were caused by the Farallon Plate to the west and the Rio Grande Rift. About 1.6 billion years ago, magma forced its way through the basement rock, creating dome-shaped uplifts and leaving behind gneiss and metamorphic schist rocks.

For about 200 million years of the early Paleozoic era, the Rocky Mountain region was covered by inland seas. Sediment from erosion of nearby rocks collected beneath the waters. Dinosaurs, flowers, and birds appeared during the Mesozoic era. Most of the peaks of the ancestral Rockies eroded, and seawater repeatedly advanced and retreated. The park was completely underwater about 100 million years ago, and hundreds of feet of sediment accumulated. When the sediment later formed sedimentary rock, it was much softer and more easily eroded than the crystalline basement rock of the ancestral Rockies.

The Cenozoic era, which began about 65 million years ago, brought volcanic and glacial activity. This era is also characterized by block fault mountain building along the Precambrian faults. The strata show extensive evidence of ash falls, extrusive igneous rocks, mudflows, and pyroclastic flows. Further uplift pushed the Rocky Mountains to their modern height and changed the drainage patterns of the region, washing away up to 5,000 feet (1,524 meters) of sedimentary rocks from ancient sea beds and revealing the basement rock of the ancestral Rockies. Major glacial activity began about 300,000 years ago with the Bull Lake glacier. The Pinedale glaciation began about 30,000 years ago, while the Satanta Peak glaciation occurred about 10,000 years ago. Primary geologic activity in modern times is stream erosion, which has created many v-shaped valleys throughout the park.

Human activity in the park dates to about 10,000 BCE, when the glaciers retreated and Clovis Paleoindian hunters explored the region. Between 6,000 BCE and 150 CE, tribes of hunter-gatherers were living in the area during spring and summer. Residents of the park between 1200 and 1800 included, at various times, Ute, Apache, and Arapaho.

The first European Americans to see Longs Peak, the highest in the park, arrived about 1820. Several other expeditions explored the region and documented it throughout the nineteenth century. In 1874, Abner Sprague built a ranch in Moraine Park that drew tourists and introduced the era of the dude ranch to the area. Other ranches catering to tourists followed.

Colorado became a state in 1876. In the early twentieth century, a number of Coloradans began working to establish Rocky Mountain National Park. The park was dedicated on September 4, 1915. A number of improvements, including new roads and bridges, have been added and updated over the years.

Overview

In 2016, the park tallied more than 4.5 million visitors. Many are drawn to the wildlife, which includes 80 mammal species—including badger, bear, beaver, bighorn sheep, bobcat, cougar, elk, deer, fox, marmot, moose, and porcupine—280 species of birds, and 11 species of fish. Visitors also enjoy a number of recreational activities. Trail Ridge Road is the jewel of the park, offering 48 miles (77 kilometers) of paved surface and multiple scenic vistas from Estes Park to Grand Lake; about 11 miles (18 kilometers) of the road are above the tree line. The Alpine Visitor Center, at 11,796 feet (3,595 meters) elevation, is the highest visitor center in the US National Park system. It and the road leading to it are inaccessible due to winter snowfall, which often buries the road from late October until crews begin plowing in May.

Visitors may enjoy wilderness camping or choose from five campsites in the park, which also includes five visitor centers and the Holzwarth Historic Site. This feature was the homestead of the Holzwarths, German immigrants who bought the property in 1917 and gradually built multiple cabins to house tourists. They also worked hard cutting lumber and ice to survive financially. They eventually established a dude ranch. Modern visitors are able to see many of the homestead's original furnishings and learn from volunteers about mountain life in the early twentieth century.

Hikers may choose trails to a number of natural features, including Alberta Falls, hundreds of streams, and 156 lakes, many of which are open to sport fishing. Many trails are open for horseback riding, and the park contains two stables, with others nearby.

Ecosystems of the park include the alpine tundra, higher than 11,000 feet (3,352 meters); subalpine, from 9,000 to 11,000 feet (2,743 to 3,352 meters), and the montane, from 5,600 to 9,500 feet (1,707 to 2,896 meters). The alpine tundra includes mostly perennials, including dwarf versions of shrubs, some flowering plants, cushion plants, grasses, and lichens. A number of rodents, grazing animals, and predators are active in this region during the warmer months.

The chilly subalpine ecosystem includes trees, such as lodgepole pines, fir, and Engelmann spruce. In many places, tree seedlings manage to establish themselves on the lee side of rocks, sheltered from the wind. These trees form dense patches that grow no higher than the rocks protecting them. These sheltered patches, called krummholz trees, may be as old as one thousand years. Many mammals and birds occupy the subalpine ecosystem.

The montane ecosystem contains the most abundant diversity of animal and plant life. The region is home to large stands of ponderosa and other pines, as well as groves of fir, spruce, quaking aspen, willows, and other trees. The montane, with its abundant sources of water, includes Moraine Park, Horseshoe Park, Kawuneeche Valley, and Upper Beaver Meadows. Plant life includes the mountain iris, plains prickly pear, and many shrubs and herbaceous plants. Birds, mammals, and the western garter snake are common.

Bibliography

"Alpine Tundra Ecosystem." National Park Service, www.nps.gov/romo/learn/nature/alpine‗tundra‗ecosystem.htm. Accessed 5 Dec. 2024.

"Legacy of a Mountain Life." National Park Service,30 Mar. 2024, www.nps.gov/romo/planyourvisit/holzwarth-historic-site.htm. Accessed 5 Dec. 2024.

"Montane Ecosystem." National Park Service, www.nps.gov/romo/learn/nature/montane‗ecosystem.htm. Accessed 5 Dec. 2024.

Noe, Barbara. "Rocky Mountain National Park: Highlights." Telegraph, 30 May 2014, www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/north-america/united-states/colorado/articles/Rocky-Mountain-National-Park-highlights/. Accessed 5 Dec. 2024.

"Rocky Mountain National Park Colorado." National Park Service, www.nps.gov/romo/index.htm. Accessed 5 Dec. 2024.

"Rocky Mountain National Park Facts." Grand Lake Area Chamber of Commerce, grandlakechamber.com/rocky-mountain-national-park-facts/. Accessed 5 Dec. 2024.

"Subalpine Ecosystem." National Park Service, www.nps.gov/romo/learn/nature/subalpine‗ecosystem.htm. Accessed 5 Dec. 2024.

"Time Line of Historic Events." National Park Service, www.nps.gov/romo/learn/historyculture/time‗line‗of‗historic‗events.htm. Accessed 5 Dec. 2024.