To ascend Rocky Mountain National Park’s Trail Ridge Road is to leave this world and enter another. It carries you breathless with wonder and altitude, toward a fragile alpine realm, the tundra. Most animals hibernate or migrate during the harsh winters. No tree can live here. (RMNP Brochure)

We took the 9-mile alternate dirt road, Old Fall River Road to reach the Alpine Visitor Center. On the way, we stop to view the spectacular Chasm Falls,

Finally, we reach the Alpine Visitor Center, what a view!

and here is the Alpine Trail, a short and mildly ascending trail to the top of tundra,

and our youngest hiker in the family, our 4-year old granddaughter posing after the hike!

This is my last posting on Rocky Mountain National Park. We only touch a small portion of this magnificent National Park. However, it was a great family reunion trip, our son’s family of four from Virginia and daughter’s family of four from Kansas and my wife and I stayed at two adjacent cabins to live, eat, hike and enjoy nature together for four days, what a wonderful experience with fond memory for everyone!