Rocky Mountain National Park is an American national park located approximately 55 mi (89 km) northwest of Denver in north-central Colorado, within the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains. The park is situated between the towns of Estes Park to the east and Grand Lake to the west. The eastern and western slopes of the Continental Divide run directly through the center of the park with the headwaters of the Colorado River located in the park's northwestern region. The main features of the park include mountains, alpine lakes and a wide variety of wildlife within various climates and environments, from wooded forests to mountain tundra.
Trail Ridge Road is the name for the 48-mile (77 km) stretch of U.S. Highway 34 that traverses Rocky Mountain National Park from Estes Park, Colorado in the east to Grand Lake, Colorado in the west. Together with the connecting 6.9-mile (11 km) Beaver Meadow Road, Trail Ridge Road forms the 55-mile (89 km) Trail Ridge Road/Beaver Meadow National Scenic Byway, an All-American Road. With a high point at 12,183 feet (3,713 m) elevation, Trail Ridge Road is the highest continuous paved road in North America. The higher portion of Trail Ridge Road is closed from October to May.
Beaver Meadows Visitor Center, also known as Rocky Mountain National Park Administration Building, is the park headquarters and principal visitors center of Rocky Mountain National Park in central northern Colorado. Completed in 1967, it was designed by Taliesin Associated Architects, and was one of the most significant commissions for that firm in the years immediately following the death of founder Frank Lloyd Wright. It was also one of the last major projects completed under the Park Service Mission 66 project. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 2001.
The Giant Forest Lodge Historic District in Sequoia National Park includes the remnants of what was once an extensive National Park Service Rustic style tourist development for park visitors. Also known as Camp Sierra, the district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in May 1978. Originally situated in the Giant Forest grove of giant sequoias, the district is notable for its nearly total demolition by the National Park Service to eliminate the impact of development on the Big Trees.
The Giant Forest Village–Camp Kaweah Historic District is located in Sequoia National Park. It is notable as one of two registered historic districts in the park that were largely demolished as part of National Park Service efforts to mitigate the impact of park visitor facilities on the park's giant sequoia groves. They were in a vernacular National Park Service Rustic and American Craftsman Bungalow style.
The Willow Park Patrol Cabin, also known as the Willow Park Ranger Station and the Willow Park Cook and Mess Hall, was built in Rocky Mountain National Park in 1923 to the design of members of the National Park Service Landscape Engineering Division under the supervision of Daniel Ray Hull. The cabin is an early example of the National Park Service Rustic style that was gaining favor with the Park Service. The cabin, along with the Willow Park Stable, originally accommodated maintenance crews on the Fall River Road.
The Fall River Pump House and Catchment Basin in Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado, are utility structures which treat water for the Fall River Pass Museum and the Alpine Visitor Center.
The Willow Park Stable in Rocky Mountain National Park was designed by National Park Service landscape architect Daniel Ray Hull and built in 1926. The National Park Service Rustic style stables and the nearby Willow Park Patrol Cabin were built to house crews maintaining the Fall River Road.
The Fern Lake Patrol Cabin in Rocky Mountain National Park was designed by National Park Service landscape Daniel Ray Hull and built in 1925. The National Park Service Rustic cabin was used for a time as a ranger station. It was destroyed by the East Troublesome Fire in 2020. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988, and was delisted in 2022, after being destroyed by the East Troublesome Fire
The McGraw Ranch, also known as the Indian Head Ranch, the =Y Ranch and the =X Ranch, was established in the Cow Creek valley near Estes Park, Colorado by Peter J. Pauley, Jr., who built a barn at his 160-acre (0.65 km2) =Y Ranch in 1884, running 2500 head of cattle on the land. The land was sold in 1897 to Hugo S. Miller, who worked with Henry C. Rouse to expand the property to a thousand acres (4 km²). In 1907 Miller and his wife inherited the lands from Rouse and were visited by Joh J. and Irene McGraw, who leased the property the next summer and purchased it in 1909, changing the brand to =X.
The Old Fall River Road, sometimes referred to as "The Old Road" by park staff in Rocky Mountain National Park, was the first automobile road to penetrate the interior of the park. The road linked the east side of the park near Estes Park with Grand Lake on the west side. Work began in 1913 but was interrupted in 1914 by World War I with final work being completed between 1918 and 1920.
The William Allen White Cabins are chiefly associated with newspaper editor William Allen White, who adopted what would become Rocky Mountain National Park as his summer residence from 1912 to his death in 1944. White had visited Estes Park, Colorado while in college, and had previously summered in Colorado Springs. In 1912, White and his wife Sallie purchased an 1887 cabin near Estes Park. The Whites expanded it the next year and built a privy, studio, and two guest cabins.
The Rocky Mountain National Park Utility Area Historic District in Rocky Mountain National Park documents the early administrative core of the park. Beginning in 1920 and continuing into the 1930s, park service and administrative structures were built in the National Park Service Rustic style. Most buildings were built of logs under a policy of blending with the natural landscape. Later construction has respected the materials and scale of the area. Structures include McLaren Hall, designed by landscape architect W.G. Hill, a number of employee residences including the superintendent's residence, equipment sheds, garages and utility buildings. Many of the buildings built in the 1930s were built by Civilian Conservation Corps labor. The Beaver Meadows Visitor Center is individually listed as a National Historic Landmark.
The historical buildings and structures of Zion National Park represent a variety of buildings, interpretive structures, signs and infrastructure associated with the National Park Service's operations in Zion National Park, Utah. Structures vary in size and scale from the Zion Lodge to road culverts and curbs, nearly all of which were designed using native materials and regional construction techniques in an adapted version of the National Park Service Rustic style. A number of the larger structures were designed by Gilbert Stanley Underwood, while many of the smaller structures were designed or coordinated with the National Park Service Branch of Plans and Designs. The bulk of the historic structures date to the 1920s and 1930s. Most of the structures of the 1930s were built using Civilian Conservation Corps labor.
The historical buildings and structures of Grand Teton National Park include a variety of buildings and built remains that pre-date the establishment of Grand Teton National Park, together with facilities built by the National Park Service to serve park visitors. Many of these places and structures have been placed on the National Register of Historic Places. The pre-Park Service structures include homestead cabins from the earliest settlement of Jackson Hole, working ranches that once covered the valley floor, and dude ranches or guest ranches that catered to the tourist trade that grew up in the 1920s and 1930s, before the park was expanded to encompass nearly all of Jackson Hole. Many of these were incorporated into the park to serve as Park Service personnel housing, or were razed to restore the landscape to a natural appearance. Others continued to function as inholdings under a life estate in which their former owners could continue to use and occupy the property until their death. Other buildings, built in the mountains after the initial establishment of the park in 1929, or in the valley after the park was expanded in 1950, were built by the Park Service to serve park visitors, frequently employing the National Park Service Rustic style of design.
Architects of the National Park Service are the architects and landscape architects who were employed by the National Park Service (NPS) starting in 1918 to design buildings, structures, roads, trails and other features in the United States National Parks. Many of their works are listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and a number have also been designated as National Historic Landmarks.
Bierstadt Lake is located in Larimer County, Colorado and within the Rocky Mountain National Park. Near McHenrys Peak and Longs Peak, there are "spectacular views" of the Continental Divide at the lake. The Bierstadt Lake Trailhead is located about 6.5 miles (10.5 km) from the turn-off at U.S. Route 36 into the Rocky Mountain National Park. During the summer, shuttle buses provide transportation to the trailhead.
Upper Beaver Meadows is a montane meadow and visitor attraction in Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado. The area is known as a good bird-watching spot and its trail leads to a number of other trails within the park. The trails may be used for hiking, snowshoeing, or cross-country skiing.
The Tonahutu Creek Trail, in the general area of Grand Lake, Colorado, in both Grand and Larimer counties, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2008.
The Arrowhead Lodge, at 34500 Poudre Canyon Hwy., Roosevelt National Forest, in Larimer County, Colorado, served by the post office in unincorporated Bellvue, Colorado, was a resort camp which was built in 1931. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992.
