Estes Park Village—Horseshoe Park—Hidden Valley—Milner Pass (Grand Lake); 48.9 miles, US 34 and Trail Ridge Road. Oil-processed road; easy grades; Milner Pass usually blocked by snow in mid-winter. Numerous campgrounds; good accommodations at Estes Park Village and Grand Lake Village.

Crossing Rocky Mountain National Park, the Trail Ridge Road (US 34) is one of the finest examples of mountain highway engineering in America. Unlike other roads that ascend mountain ranges by way of valleys and canyons, the trail makes its way upward to Milner Pass along the ridge tops, roughly following an old Ute trail. Much of the route is above timberline, affording magnificent views of great mountains, and rivers and valleys thousands of feet below.

ESTES PARK VILLAGE, 0 miles (7,500 alt., 417 pop.), lies in the narrow western neck of Estes Park (see Tour 4), almost surrounded by Rocky Mountain National Park. On all sides are densely forested hills, their slopes and craggy summits dotted with cabins and hotels. Although inhabited the year around, the village lives by its summer trade. Cars and parties on horseback or on foot throng the main street. Riding and hiking clothes are the fashion; fishing, camping, mountain climbing, and trail trips are engrossing topics of conversation. The village, and Estes Park itself, are commonly confused with Rocky Mountain National Park because so many visitors make the village, near-by hotels, dude ranches, and camps their headquarters.

On the western edge of the village, the PARK HEADQUARTERS occupy two stone buildings; the peeled log rafters and interior trim have been rubbed with light oil to bring out their unusual grain. Here a MUSEUM (open 8-5 daily) displays geological and biological specimens from the park; among other interesting exhibits are wild flowers picked daily by the rangers and labeled so that visitors can identify those currently in bloom.

Estes Park Village is at the junction with an oil-processed road leading to Bear Lake (see Park Tour 3).

US 34 proceeds west by way of Fall River; few Colorado streams are more beautiful, and few spots more inviting than its valley. Passing a STATE FISH HATCHERY (open 8-5 daily), 3.6 miles, the highway follows the valley past several public campgrounds to the ENTRANCE TO ROCKY MOUNTAIN NATIONAL PARK, 4 miles, marked by a rustic wooden gateway. Inside the gate, set in a deep aspen grove, is the BIG HORN RANGER STATION, housing rangers and their fire-fighting equipment. Within the park US 34 is known and marked as the Trail Ridge Road; dense growths of pine flank the highway.

HORSESHOE PARK, 5.5 miles, a high flat grassland where wild flowers bloom in profusion, was named for the shape of the valley. According to geologists, the valley once was the bed of a great lake, which accounts for the lack of forest here.

At 6 miles is the junction with the Fall River Road (see Park Tour 2). West of the junction, the road (35 miles speed limit strictly enforced) has been surfaced to a point within four miles of Grand Lake, at a cost of $1,500,000. Swinging left in a wide curve, the highway ascends the side of a lateral moraine. Underfoot is a mass of gravel and smoothed spheroid rocks; the slopes are grass-covered, and the high inner banks of the highway have been sodded. During spring and summer the landscape is bright with wild flowers. The route crosses Hidden Valley Creek, trickling down the mountain through thickets of pine and willow herb, to DEER RIDGE, 8.9 miles (8,920 alt.), with a store and OBSERVATION TOWER (open), affording a wide view of the central and eastern portions of the park. Horseshoe Park and the broad grassland of Estes Park are spread at the foot of great mountains. Longs Peak, with its sheer granite face, lies to the south. Close at hand is the MUMMY RANGE, so called because its barren peaks suggest the form of a recumbent giant. Three of the peaks tower more than 13,000 feet. The mass of YPSILON MOUNTAIN (13,507 alt.), with its clearly defined "Y," is the most striking; to the north is MOUNT FAIRCHILD (13,502 alt.); farther north, HAGUES PEAK (13,562 alt.).

Deer Ridge is at the junction with a road from Moraine Park (see Park Tour 3).

West of Deer Ridge the highway follows Hidden Valley Creek through a timbered area. Evidence of the work of beavers appears, 10.8 miles, where aspens have been felled for use in construction of dams. Beavers sometimes draw logs along the ground for short distances, but, where possible, drop trees directly into the water and strip off the branches. The dams, chinked with mud, are so strongly built that men seeking to clear watercourses have been forced to use dynamite. Beavers use branches and mud in constructing their dome-shaped houses, about 40 of which appear in the valley. The beavers are extremely tame, and pay little heed to onlookers.

West of the beaver pond the road passes a burned area (R) before making several horseshoe turns to gain altitude. This stretch was swept by fire in 1914. The ceaseless vigilance of park authorities will be appreciated when it is realized that more than 25 years have passed without appreciable reforestation.

MANY PARKS CURVE, 12.9 miles, one of numerous parking spaces provided along Trail Ridge Road, presents a broad view of the mountains, forests, and valleys of the eastern part of the park. A populous colony of chipmunks, tiny squirrel-like animals with long bushy tails and five black-and-white stripes along their dun backs, inhabit the rocks and crannies near by. Impelled alike by curiosity and desire for food, they play along the rock retaining wall, close to visitors, a few being bold enough to take food from out-stretched hands.

The road swings around Many Parks Curve to reveal (R) the gaunt bare peaks of the Mummy Range. They are, from south to north: Mount Chapin (12,458 alt.), Mount Chiquita (13,052 alt.), Ypsilon Mountain (13,507 alt.), Mount Fairchild (13,502 alt.), Hagues Peak (13,562 alt.), and Mummy Mountain (13,413 alt.) ; all lie east of the Continental Divide.

The highway climbs steadily, passing timberline several times within a short distance. Timberline varies considerably, being much lower on shaded than on sunlit slopes. The road reaches a point two miles above sea level (10,560 alt.), 16.6 miles, and at another PARKING SPACE, 17.2 miles, is an extensive view of the entire Mummy Range to the north. To the east lie the foothills of the main range, through which the highway enters the park; extending to the horizon are the plains stretching away like a vast blue sea.

TIMBERLINE (11,436 alt.), 19.3 miles, offers a view (L) of Stones Peak. Far to the south the granite cap of Longs Peak, highest in the park, is clearly distinguishable among its stalwart neighbors. Above timberline the road crosses a grassland dotted with bluebells and alpine flowers. MONUMENT RIDGE (12,121 alt.), 22.3 miles, a jagged knife-like edge of dark purplish-red granite, thrusts up through the high meadow. West of the ridge is another PARKING SPACE, with a view across Forest Canyon to the GORGE LAKES, tiny blue dots in the canyon.

The highway crosses a bare, undulating plain on the crest of the range, swinging upward in broad "tundra" curves. From a long PARKING SPACE, 24.6 miles, on the edge of a 500-foot precipice, ICEBERG LAKE (11,500 alt.) is seen below, held in a glacial cirque. The lake is fed by melting snowbanks, and during most of the summer great cakes of ice bob on its surface.

Ascending to the highest point on Trail Ridge Road (12,183 alt.), 25.1 miles, the highway offers a continuous view of great mountains, a succession of blue and purple masses. The rugged Gore Range (L), almost 60 miles distant, named for Sir George Gore, an Irishman who spent much of his life in the mountain country, has been only partly explored. Ahead are the bulks of the Never Summer Mountains, named for their perpetually snow-covered peaks. The jagged sawtooth outline of this range marks the western boundary of Rocky Mountain National Park for eight miles; within this distance are six peaks rising more than 12,000 feet. The principal summits are, from north to south: BAKER MOUNTAIN (12,406 alt.), MOUNT NIMBUS (12,730 alt.), RED MOUNTAIN (11,505 alt.), MOUNT CUMULUS (12,724 alt.), HOWARD MOUNTAIN (12,814 alt.), MOUNT CIRRUS (12,804 alt.), LEAD MOUNTAIN (12,532 alt.), MOUNT RICHTHOFEN (12,953 alt.), named for a German nobleman who planned a great summer resort in the Colorado mountains, and THUNDER MOUNTAIN (11,700 alt.). All but Red Mountain and Baker Mountain form part of the Continental Divide.

At the western junction with the Fall River Road (see Park Tour 2), 26.7 miles, is a PARKING SPACE with a view of mountains and distant plains. Directly ahead, through a notch in Specimen Mountain, looms the pyramidal peak of Mount Richthofen. In the background is the bleak, blue-and-white sky-line of the Never Summers; to the northwest are Clarks Peak and the distant Wyoming mountains. At the parking space is the FALL RIVER PASS MUSEUM (open 8-5 daily), with exhibits revealing the geological evolution of the park. The first display shows the park as part of the ocean floor before the great upheaval; the second, the smooth rolling mountains after the upheaval; the park during the Ice Age is then shown; the final chart portrays its appearance after the recession of the ice masses, leaving the jagged canyons and moraines much as they are today. Other exhibits illustrate the life story of plants and animals of the high country.

North of the parking area the highway continues for some distance above timberline, then descends into the timber, prominent among the trees is the Engelmann spruce with its dark green foliage. Because of heavy rainfall the trees are taller and more thickly set here than elsewhere.

The highway crosses the Continental Divide at MILNER PASS (10,759 alt.), 31.1 miles, over which a transcontinental railroad was projected. At the top of the pass are the POUDRE LAKES, two small ponds of greenish-brown water, the source of Cache la Poudre Creek, which flows east from the pass toward the Mississippi.

The Poudre Lakes are at the junction with a foot trail.

Right on this trail through dense forests to a fork, 0.5 miles, presenting a view of the CACHE LA POUDRE RIVER (R) winding through open grassland. Above timberline the trail ends, 1.1 miles, near the CRATER, an open jagged pit. Some of the blue and green crystal rock formations and glinting black obsidian here are as soft as beeswax; varicolored basalts and geodes contribute to the prismatic effects in the sunlight.

Crater is at the junction with a steep trail that ascends by way of the eastern ridge to the top of SPECIMEN MOUNTAIN (12,482 alt.), formed almost entirely of dark volcanic materials, the habitat of numerous species of wild animal life, including the shy bighorn sheep.

West of the Poudre Lakes the highway winds for miles down a canyon between smooth hills blanketed with heavy forests. Little streams from melting snowbanks trickle through the timber, forming streaks of brighter green. JACKSTRAW MOUNTAIN, 33 miles, was swept by fire in 1872; the charred remains resemble giant piles of jackstraws through which a few small pines and spruce have pushed their way. From a parking place at FAR VIEW CURVE, 33.4 miles, can be seen the North Fork of the Colorado River winding southward through a series of beaver ponds. The valley itself is open grassland, but the hills are densely forested with lodgepole pine.

The highway swings down in a long horseshoe curve to the WEST SIDE CAMPGROUND (free), 41.9 miles, on the sagebrush-covered floor of a valley once the pasture of deer and buffalo and long a Ute hunting ground. Many flint chips and arrowheads have been found here.

Trail Ridge Road becomes US 34 (see Tour 3) at the western boundary of Rocky Mountain National Park, 48.9 miles, 17.6 miles north of Granby (7,935 alt., 90 pop.) (see Tour 7b).