Rocky Mountain National Park, CO: Trail Ridge Road

Before we left Rocky Mountain National Park, we took a drive on Trail Ridge Road, the highest elevation road in the national park system. 

Usually this road is open all the way through the park (there are east and west entrances), but since there was still a lot of snow to clear, it was only open for the first 12 miles.

It was still really worth it. We saw lots of mountains and lots (and lots and lots) of elk!

 

But really, the views were the main draw (and to drive at 12,000 ft).

You could tell that you were nearing the end of the road because the snow got deeper and higher...

We were in a Jeep Patriot and the snow was way higher than our car!

I bet this is even nicer in real summer, so if you are in the park, check it out. There are several overlooks to stop at to take it all in (which is where that panorama above was taken). It reminded me of driving the Blue Ridge Parkway except, you know, with way bigger mountains ;)