About This Trip
Trail Ridge Road is the 48-mile stretch of US 34 across Rocky Mountain National Park from Estes Park on the east to Grand Lake on the west. It tops out at 12,183 feet, making it North America's highest continuous paved road, and runs for eleven miles above treeline. With Beaver Meadow Road it forms an All-American Road.
Climbing from the east, the road passes from montane aspen and ponderosa pine into subalpine fir and spruce, then onto open tundra, where pikas, marmots, ptarmigan and bighorn sheep are often seen and some 200 kinds of tiny alpine plants bloom in a growing season that can be just 40 days long. It crosses the Continental Divide at Milner Pass, 10,758 feet, and drops down the Kawuneeche Valley beside the North Fork of the Colorado River to Grand Lake.
The high part of the road is closed from October to May, and our planner will not route this trip over it then. In 2026 the park required a timed entry reservation from May 22 to mid-October. As planned, the trip comes to about 40 miles rather than 48, because between Sheep Lakes and the Alpine Visitor Center the planner climbs Old Fall River Road, a one-way road with sharp switchbacks up Mount Chapin, instead of Trail Ridge. Following Trail Ridge (US 34) the whole way gives you the road's full 48 miles.
Stops
Estes Park, CO — Eastern Gateway
The park's eastern gateway town. Above it stands the Stanley Hotel, opened on July 4, 1909, by F. O. Stanley, one of the founders of the Stanley Motor Carriage Company; a stay there gave Stephen King the idea for The Shining.
Sheep Lakes — Bighorn Mineral Lick
A meadow inside the park where bighorn sheep come down off the mountainside to lick the mud for minerals. Coyotes, ground squirrels and elk use it too, and it is especially busy during the autumn elk rut.
Alpine Visitor Center — 11,796 ft
No visitor center in the national parks sits higher. It is at Fall River Pass, about a mile short of the road's high point and four miles before Milner Pass on the Continental Divide.
Grand Lake, CO — Western End
A town founded in 1881 at 8,369 feet on the shore of Grand Lake, the biggest natural lake in Colorado. It began as the supply point for the mining camps of Lulu City, Teller City and Gaskill and now lives on visitors to the park.
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Where to Stay
Driving this in a day? You can still book a room near the start or finish of the route.
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Scenic byway on this drive
More places to stop and photos on each road's own page.