Rocky Mountain National Park: Why do we love it?

Trevor Hughes | USA TODAY

ESTES PARK, COLO. — Asking visitors why they love Rocky Mountain National Park is liable to produce some befuddled looks.

Is it the snow-capped mountains? The roaring rivers and babbling brooks? The majestic elk and bighorn sheep? Or maybe just the chance to drive at more than

2 miles above sea level and throw snowballs in mid- summer?

"There's nowhere else where you can see so much," says Jessica Blank, a nurse from Kentucky. "I wanted to come and see somewhere wild and mountainous."

Like many visitors, Blank found herself drawn to the wide range of options at the park, which is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year. This spring, Blank spent two nights camping in a remote area of the park, watching one day as a magpie taunted a coyote.

"It's incredible, the things you can see," she says.

America acquired the land on which the park sits as part of the 1803 Louisiana Purchase, and visitors have long appreciated its towering peaks and abundant wildlife. Silver prospectors sought their fortune in Lulu City, and farmers tapped the Colorado River for irrigation, diverting water across the Continental Divide to nurture crops near Denver.

Rocky, as the park is known locally, officially became a national park on Jan. 26, 1915, with the signature of President Woodrow Wilson, following years of lobbying by naturalist and lodge owner Enos Mills. At the time, many private buildings dotted the new park's landscape, and roads were primitive.

As with many Western parks, the Great Depression spurred major changes as the Civilian Conservation Corps erected lodges and built roads and trails. While there had been a road across the Continental Divide, it wasn't designed for automobiles in the way the purpose-built Trail Ridge Road was.

Trail Ridge, the highest paved road in the country, takes drivers on a 4,000-foot climb to nearly 11,500 feet above sea level, connecting Estes Park with Grand Lake. Opened in 1932, the highway to the sky winds through meadows and pine forests before breaking out through wind-twisted trees known as krummholz onto windswept tundra, providing 360-degree views of the surrounding mountains and valleys.

The road is a popular day trip for summer visitors, who can easily drive from Denver to the park's eastern edge, up and across the Continental Divide for lunch in Grand Lake before returning as the sun sets behind the Rockies. Unlike many national parks, Rocky was never served by a railroad, which park officials say helped make it one of the nation's first auto-focused national parks.

"It was designed to be accessible almost right from the beginning," says park superintendent Vaughn Baker. "(Visitors) can do it from their car, and they certainly don't have to get out. It's a good introduction to wilderness. We hope the next step is to get out of the car, and maybe it's a short walk out to the tundra or to a lake."

Of course, accessible doesn't equal tamed. Visitors often have to wend their way through elk herds at the park's entrance, and bighorn sheep unexpectedly hop off ledges onto the road in front of cars. In short, this park that last year got 3.4 million visitors is still dominated by Mother Nature.

"What better way to connect with kids than for them to see wildlife?" Baker says.

The park's grandeur makes us all feel small. Longs Peak towers to 14,259 feet, all of which can be conquered by well-prepared hikers willing to start their trek in the pre-dawn darkness. They clamber through the boulder field and then the Keyhole before making the final ascent to the massive flat-topped peak. Longs is no easy hike, yet it draws thousands of trekkers and climbers every year from around the world.

The intimidating Longs is far from the park's only hike. Visitors can take easy walks along brooks that were snow just a few hours before, or hike alongside the very first miles of the Colorado River as it begins its long path to Mexico. You can even walk to abandoned gold mines or the now-defunct Lulu City.

Baker says the park's beauty comes from its combination of accessibility and wilderness. With an easy drive, visitors can look down upon valleys and meadows where few feet have trod.

The park's 100th anniversary is an opportunity for people to get re-acquainted with Rocky, which has long been a draw for families on vacation, Baker says. Hotels, lodges and campgrounds surround the park, and there's also camping and lodging inside its boundaries.

"People have made connections to this special place over generations," he says. "It's that classic Rocky Mountain experience."

Jackie Keller of Omaha rediscovered that classic experience on a recent weekend. Keller grew up in the Midwest but used to visit Rocky as a kid. She brought her husband, Pat, for his first visit while they were in the area with family.

"It's been a long time since I've seen the mountains," Keller said as she and Pat snapped photos of the snow-covered peaks looming above them. "I'll drive nine hours to be in this beauty for a long weekend."

Pat Keller listened quietly as his wife described her childhood visits to the park, and as she decided, right then and there, to lobby to move their annual family reunion west from Nebraska.

"I've never seen anything like it in my life," he said as he watched high clouds blow past snow-capped peaks. "It's mesmerizing."

About the park

Size: 265,770 acres

Visitors: 3,434,751 in 2014

Established: 1915

History: For thousands of years, Native Americans used trails to cross the Continental Divide in the area of Rocky Mountain National Park. Those trails have become roads connecting the east and west sides of the park along Trail Ridge Road, which is closed each year by snowfall. The road reopens around Memorial Day after weeks of work by snowplow drivers carving through 30-foot-tall drifts.

When visiting: The Beaver Meadows Visitor Center, one of several around the park, is on U.S. Route 36, 3 miles west of Estes Park, Colo. Visitor information: 970-586-1206. Trail Ridge Road information recording: 970-586-1222 (24 hours a day, updated as conditions change).

Of note: The park was once home to a privately run ski area called Hidden Valley, and while the lifts and lodge have been removed, the slope is open for sledding and back-country skiing late into spring.