If you’ve ever even heard of me, you know that I am fascinated with Colorado’s mining / railroad history and the desert beauty at the western edge of the state. It has come to my attention that my fascination with these specific areas has resulted in me neglecting much of the best that Colorado has to offer. So, I decided that this year’s Colorado trip would focus on high-altitude scenery. Thus, we begin at Rocky Mountain National Park, with the highest continuously paved through road in the USA: Trail Ridge Road.
OK, the scenery above is nice. But I promised “high-altitude scenery”, so let’s continue a bit further up Trail Ridge…
What’s that? Still not high enough? Well, let’s climb a little farther and check our elevation real quick-like…
I would hope at this point you would be curious as to just how high this road goes. According to the park’s web site, the highest point along the road is 12,183 feet above sea level. I seem to have missed the sign for that. Probably because I was busy looking for a place to park, so I could get out and hoof it for a while. Y’see, an actual trail intersects Trail Ridge Road (go figure).
When I lived in (and was acclimated to) Colorado, I often heard visitors describe what they felt when trying to hike at altitude. They always said it felt like their lungs were on fire and their heart was about to burst. After my short hike today, I can confirm the accuracy of that description. I only hiked about half a mile and gained a mere 170 feet in elevation. But I felt like I was going to die. Unfortunately, this set a new (lower) standard for the rest of this trip. At least I got these pics out of the deal…
At this point, I was dying from the minimal hike, and intermittent rain was happening. I decided to head down to my hotel in Granby, Colorado. See ya on Day 2!
Voyages with Parkinson's 