Hike the Parks: Rocky Mountain National Park. Brendan Leonard

       In 1914, the Colorado Mountain Club arranged for Arapaho elders living on the Wind River Reservation to take a two-week pack trip through what is now Rocky Mountain National Park, in order to provide the Arapaho names for landmarks in the area. Oliver Toll, who became the trip’s “accidental ethnographer,” recorded place names like the Ute Trail, Niwot Ridge, Lumpy Ridge, and the Never Summer Mountains, which are still used today (even though some people question the translations).

       FLORA AND FAUNA

      The land of Rocky Mountain National Park spans three classifications of ecosystems, home to a diverse collection of plant and animal life: montane (elevations up to 9500 feet/2896 m), subalpine (elevations between 9000 feet/2743 m and 11,000 feet/3353 m), and alpine tundra (elevations higher than 11,000 feet/3353 m). From the more temperate valley floors to the harsh conditions of the alpine tundra, it’s all connected. Here are a few selected animals and plants you might see on a visit to the park:

       ELK

      Elk are arguably the most famous animals in the park, roaming from the high-altitude alpine tundra all the way down to the golf courses in Estes Park. Elk travel in herds that can number in the hundreds. Fall is their mating season, and if you’re anywhere in the vicinity of a herd at that time of year, you might hear the bugling of bull elk. Only male elk have antlers, which they grow in the spring and shed in the winter. If you’re wondering how close you should get to an elk, consider this: Elk can run 45 miles per hour (72 kmph). Stay at least 75 feet away (23 m).

       Wildflowers along the Black Canyon Trail (Hike 16)

       BIGHORN SHEEP

      The bighorn sheep, Colorado’s official state animal, is also the symbol of Rocky Mountain National Park. It’s estimated that more than six hundred bighorn sheep live in the park, eating grasses and other vegetation and using their grippy hooves and soles to avoid predators by traversing cliffs and ledges. Their horns are permanent and can weigh up to thirty pounds (13.6 kg), and they use them to head-butt each other at speeds of up to 40 miles per hour (64 kmph) in mating rituals. In late spring and early summer, bighorn sheep are known to travel down from the Mummy Range to Sheep Lakes in the middle of the day to get nutrients from the plants and soil.

       BEARS

      Sightings of black bears—whose fur, contrary to their name, can be brown—are uncommon in Rocky Mountain National Park, but enough black bears call the park home for bear canisters to be required for backcountry travel, and for bearproof food lockers to be provided in park campgrounds. Black bears weigh between 200 and 600 pounds, can run 25 to 30 mph, and generally avoid humans.

       MARMOTS

      Cousins of the more famous groundhog, marmots are the huskiest members of the squirrel family, inhabiting rocky areas in the harsh alpine environment and digging labyrinthine tunnel systems underneath boulders, where they live in groups of ten to twenty. They hibernate for more than half the year, bedding down for the winter in late September or early October and staying in until April or May. If you hear a marmot whistle in the alpine, it is likely signaling to other marmots that a potential danger is nearby (you) so they can take cover in tunnels.

       FISH

      Several species of fish can be found in the lakes, rivers, and streams in Rocky Mountain National Park, and six species are known to be native to the park: western longnose sucker, western white sucker, mottled sculpin, cutthroat trout, Colorado River cutthroat trout, and the greenback cutthroat trout, which is the official Colorado state fish and is currently classified as threatened on the endangered species list. All greenback cutthroat trout in Rocky Mountain National Park are catch-and-release.

       WILDFLOWERS

      From late spring to late summer, wildflower blooms bring a palette of red, purple, white, and yellow to trail sides and meadows all over the park. Some of the flowers more commonly seen on the hikes in this book are cow parsnips, arnica, alpine avens, scarlet paintbrush, fireweed, Bigelow’s tansyaster, and lupine. The Colorado state flower, the purpleand-white Colorado columbine, is also found in the park.

       TREES

      Rocky Mountain National Park’s mountainsides are thick with evergreen trees, including Douglas fir, lodgepole pine, ponderosa pine, Colorado blue spruce, and Engelmann spruce, and in the rocky and windiest areas of the park, gnarly limber pines can be found, their trunks and limbs twisted dramatically by wind. Stands of aspen can also be found throughout the park, bringing fall color to the mountains when their leaves turn golden in autumn.

       ALPINE TUNDRA PLANTS

      Above 11,500 feet (3505 m), you won’t see tall trees, but the ground at that altitude is far from barren. Many hardy shrubs, grasses, and lichen thrive in the short growing season and harsh environment of the alpine tundra. Low-growing, wind-twisted fir and spruce trees can be several hundred to a thousand years old. These trees, called Krummholz (a German word meaning “wood that is crooked, twisted, or bent”) mark the upper limit of tree growth and the transition to alpine tundra, where a number of low-to-the-ground grasses and sedges carpet the mountain slopes.

       KEY STATISTICS

      •Established: January 26, 1915

      •Acreage: 265,807 acres (107,568 hectares); includes inholdings

      •Square miles: 415 square miles (1075 square km)

      •Designated as wilderness: 94.9 percent (252,298 acres/ 102,101 hectares)

      •Tundra acres: 89,099 acres (36,057 hectares)

      •Named peaks: 124 named peaks 8789 feet (2679 m) or higher; 118 above 10,000 feet (3048 m), 98 above 11,000 feet (3353 m), 77 above 12,000 feet (3658 m), 20 above 13,000 feet (3692 m), 1 above 14,000 feet (4267 m)

      •High point: Longs Peak at 14,259 feet (4346 m)

      •Lakes: 147

      •Average annual visitation: 4.5 million

      •Hiking trails: Approximately 355 miles (571 km)

       The view out the door of the Agnes Vaille Shelter on Longs Peak (Hike 25)

       MUST-SEE SIGHTS AND ACTIVITIES

      This list primarily includes activities other than hiking, but there are two short (1-mile) hikes that are family-friendly. The others provide easy, accessible diversions and sightseeing opportunities unique to Rocky Mountain National Park.

       TRAIL RIDGE ROAD