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Rocky Mountain Road Trip
Your Colorado Family Vacation Awaits
By April E. Clark
Conservationist John Muir, founder of the Sierra Club and often referred to as the "Father of Our National Parks System," once wrote, "Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play and pray in, where Nature may heal and cheer and give strength to body and soul alike." For travelers craving food for the soul this fall, Colorado is the cr笥 de la cr笥 of beautiful and scenic destinations.
Boasting the highest mean elevation of any state, Colorado is best known for its Rocky Mountain peaks, with 1,000 summits reaching upwards of 10,000 feet high and 54 above 14,000 feet (called "Fourteeners" by locals). For high-elevation seekers, no trip to Colorado is complete without visiting the infamous Pikes Peak, discovered by U.S. Army Lieutenant Zebulon M. Pike in 1806, and Mount Evans, located only 50 miles west of Denver, which features the highest paved road in the United States.
"Some awesome and free to nearly-free activities are available only in summer and fall in Colorado, such as driving to the top of 14,000-foot-plus Mount Evans. Once on top, visitors have a jaw-dropping panoramic view of the Rockies and can almost always meet shaggy white mountain goats strolling about – they're not pets to play with but are very calm and not camera shy around visitors," say officials from the Colorado Tourism Office.
"Visitors can also drive Trail Ridge Road, the highest continuous road in the United States, from the eastern side of Rocky Mountain National Park to the western side," the tourism office says. "They can also drive and/or take the cog train to 14,000-foot-plus Pikes Peak in Colorado Springs, the mountain that inspired the song, "America." Both roads are closed in winter, so summer is a great time to enjoy the views, wildlife and sometimes even snow on top of the mountains."