Trail Ridge Road opened today on schedule. It crosses Rocky Mountain National Park from Estes Park on the east side to Grand Lake on the west. Drivers are warmed that heavy melting during the day and refreezing at night will make the road treacherous at times. The Alpine Visitor Center is expected to open sometime next week, after it is dug out of the 20-ft drifts that cover it. Presumably the webcam there will come back on line at the same time.
Here were some of the scenes up there this week of the road clearing and the digging out of the Visitor Center (click for larger views):
More on Trail Ridge Road and the Alpine Visitor Center here.
An impressive image mosaic PT, made even more impressive by all the very long poles sticking up in what I can only describe as “strategic looking” positions. Tell me, are they there for the truly mind-blowing reason I think they are?!?! 😯
The poles are set up in the fall, before it starts snowing. They mark the edge of the road or other key points and are a good indicator of snow depth. Their primary purpose, though, is to keep the plows on the road in the spring. Whee! Here’s a pre-snow picture:
That white car looks like mine, but I probably wouldn’t be going up if the sky looked like that. There’s not a lot of cover up there.
Jeez PT, the height of the poles just scares the crap out of me! They also remind me of the last line in Pink Floyd’s song, “Mother, did it need to be so high?” 😯
Unless you’re a plow driver, you don’t have to worry about it. Now, the drop off the side … that’s another story. 😉
What neat photos of the snow removal process! I read a book about 2 young ladies who spent the winter in one of the ranger cabins that used to sit on that south slope of Sundance Mt near where your photo was taken about the wind clearing the road. Could you imagine how snowy & windy that would be?? To ski down Trail Ridge to the old Hidden Valley runs to go to Estes, then having to hike back up the same way lugging supplies…. Guess living in the midwest with a good furnace isn’t so bad!
I’m sure the park is spectacular in winter, but it’s always been a summer destination for me. Now that I live so close, I really need to get into the winter side of it. Never have been very big on “roughing it.” I’m kind of a soft city girl and was always the out-of-place flatlander when I arrived. Now I’m here, finally, but I’m old and fat. 🙁
Whoa! Still chill! Looks fine to me ( save some – hope to get up there in Sept)
Ah, wise woman. September is the best month to visit the mountains. I always came up in September, once my son was out of school.