Trail Ridge Road, Fall River Road--amazing!
By A Yahoo! Contributor, 8/12/07
The road between Estes Park and Grand Lake (both in Colorado) is the highest altitude continuous highway in North America, and it's quite beautiful. The road takes you higher than 12,000 feet (maybe even as high as 14,000? can't remember...), above the treeline and into tundra territory, where only scrubby grass and wildflowers dare to grow. There are elk, tons of them, sometimes some deer, and people claim to see bighorn sheep (I never did, and I looked pretty hard). No matter what kind of wildlife you see, the landscape is absolutely incredible once you get up high and past the trees.
If you're coming from Estes Park, I also recommend the Fall River road (might be called Old Fall River Road....)...it's a dirt road accessed from the Estes Park side of the national park, and although it's well-maintained, things can feel a bit dicey at times. The road is one-way, features lots of switchbacks, and hugs the mountain on one side while looking down into deep, deep valleys on the other. If you are scared of heights, don't look down--it's very easy to picture your car losing its footing and tumbling down the mountainside! Definitely an adventure, kind of a mini-version of the off-roading that's offered near Ouray and Telluride. Fall River Road is 9 miles, takes more than an hour, and ends at the Alpine center (at about 12,000 feet). Amazing!