We just came up that road

It was the kids first time in the Rocky Mountains so we decided to take them up Trail Ridge Road.  We stopped at the Alpine Visitor’s Center and the Trail Ridge Gift Store to explore and take in the views.  The Alpine Visitor’s Center is on Fall River Pass at the junction of Trail Ridge Road and Old Fall River Road.  It is open daily, however, Trail Ridge Road is only open usually May to October due to the large amount of heavy snow it gets during the winter months.

At the Alpine Visitor Center you can see amazing views of the tundra.  There are some educational items to look at in the visitor center as well as a bookstore, gift shop, and snack bar.  The snack bar at the Alpine Visitor’s Center is the only restaurant in the park so if you need something to eat this is where you need to stop.

The Alpine Visitor Center is along Trail Ridge Road.  Trail Ridge Road extends from Estates Park to Grand Lake.  It climbs up over 11,000 feet and has 11 miles where the treeline ends.  At the treeline you will often still see snow in the summer time, trees twisted from the winds and more.  Along Trail Ridge Road you will see evergreen forests, tundra with no trees in sight, wildlife, wildflowers, and probably even some snow all from your car.  As kids we used to go up past the tree line in the summer time and have a snowball fight in our shorts and tshirts.  Which is fun for awhile then everyone is heading quickly back to the car to defrost.

Neat Activity for Kids:  On the way up my Aunt and Uncle put a sealed bag of potato chips between the girls seats.  We didn’t say anything to them other than we are sitting the chips here so they won’t get crunched before our picnic.  As we made our way further up into the mountains the bag began to inflate.  The girls noticed about halfway up that the chip bag seemed to be growing larger (like an expanding balloon).  We didn’t make a big deal about it, but before we reached the top we heard a sudden “pop” in the car.  The girls immediately insisted that the potato chip bag had burst open.  Why do you think the chip bag expanded and popped open?  When packaged the bag of chips are sealed air tight to help preserve the chips longer.  When you go to higher altitudes the air is thinner which means there is less air pressure on the outside of your chip bag, however, the air inside the bag remains at the original higher air pressure.  This causes the chip bag to expand until the pressure both on the inside and outside of the bag are the same again.  Sometimes, like in our case, this will cause the bag of chips to actually explode or open when traveling to higher altitudes.  It is a fun activity to do with the kids (especially if you don’t say anything to them before hand).  They thought it was awesome!

 Wonder what animal lives in this cave….

 Looking out over the mountains from the Alpine Visitor Center.  As you can see from this picture there are no trees on the mountains because it’s above the tree line.  You will also see there is still snow even though this picture was taken in July.

 This area gets a lot of snow.  Even in the summer there is still snow sitting on this mountain.

 Rocky Mountains and it’s amazing natural rock displays

 A stop at the Alpine Visitor Center

 Beautiful green valley below the bare mountain tops

 It was colder up higher and still had areas with quite a bit of snow on the mountains around us.

 As we were looking around at the Alpine Visitor Center it got dark and cloudy outside.   Only a few minutes later we were getting hit with a rain storm.  It rained part of the way back down Trail Ridge Road, but after awhile it was bright and sunny again.

 The “Travel and Vacation” series is an insight into our trips together as a family, ways we relax, and tips on how to make trips more enjoyable.  Life is short and we were thrilled to have the opportunity to build memories with family and explore of of the most amazing places during our time away.  Explore with a good attitude, look for fun, and it will be an awesome trip jammed packed with positive memories.  It is refreshing having some time away from the regular routine.  Make it a once in a lifetime opportunity to meet new people and learn.  You just might see or try something new that takes your breath away!