Exploring the Alluvial Fan and Old Fall River Road

The first time I headed up to Alpine Visitor Center in Rocky Mountain National Park, I let my GPS guide me up the highway.  There I learned about the Old Fall River Road. It was opened in 1920 and was the first auto route to allow access to the Alpine area of Rocky Mountain National Park. The road is very narrow, with LOTS of switchbacks -  in one place three levels are stacked on top of each other, steep slopes - up to 16% and tight curves. I watched one pickup have to back up to make the tight curve.

You can only access the road from Hwy 34 and can only travel it in a northwest direction, going from a valley up to the Alpine Visitor Center. I found the road itself, extremely peaceful and scenic. I took advantage of most of the pull outs  to get out and see details not visible from the car. And of course, I took pictures at those stops.

My first stop on the way to the one-way dirt road, was the East Alluvial Fan Parking lot.  From there I followed the 0.15 mile trail through various sizes of rocks, along with some trees and shrubs before I reached the Alluvial Fan left from the huge flood of July  15, 1982, when Lawn Lake broke through the terminal moraine, which had held the lake since the last ice age, 10000 years ago, broke lose,  releasing 29 million gallons of water which carried huge rocks, some the size of autos, to the valley below.

I climbed the easy trail and then did a little rock hopping as I moved around to find the best pictures. I also did it again with Jerry and Julie and added in a few from that trip.

The Park is in the process of making this trail accessible

Looking across the rocks to the far view

Waterfall on Roaring River

A panoramic showing the bridge on the left end and the falls in the upper right

My favorite closeup of the falls

I loved this little flower against the tan rocks - even though it is near the end of blooming

There were at least two different 4-wheel tours going on

My f

My first pullover gave me a change to look back over a spectacular valley

I stopped several times to take pictures of this little creek.  Here I could not back up enough
 to get all of this house-sized boulder

We hiked up the little creek to another lovely waterfalls on the second visit. 

I took this picture from a long ways back to get in the beautiful waterfall

This is the area where several switch backs are stacked on top of each other - I could only get the bo

I was in the pullout at the edge of the switchback when this truck came up.  It had to back up to make the turn. 

The higher I got, the more kinds of wildflowers there were. At the top, the plants
 have 6-12 weeks to sprout, grow, blossom, and make seeds. 

This looked like water erosion, probably from the up to thirty feet of snow

Another wonderful view, near the top of this world

In the alpine fields below the Alpine Visitor Center - at top right

I had to take this panoramic from the back deck of the visitor center.  

This altitude is not livable in winter. Guess they have HUGE winds if they need all this to keep the roof attached

I took the Trail Ridge Road back to camp.  It is the highest paved road in the United States. Clouds were adding to the already specular scenery.

The colors of the hills and clouds blew me away - this back on the Trail Ridge Road,
considered on of the top scenic drives in Colorado

I did this again with friends, Jerry and Julie. We got to see several elk just below the visitor center.

Three bull elk just before the rut 

Bull elk by Julie -  he crossed the road in front of us and she was able to jump out of the car
and run up a little hill to catch him

If you are in the Rocky Mountains National Park and can't hike, or even if you can, this is a wonderful hike in a car.  And there are several trails off it.  I did it on a Sunday and found lots of traffic but still felt alone with nature, at least until I reached the last bit of alpine fields that were full of visitors.