Tree Line – Old Fall River Road – Rocky Mountain National Park

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Old Fall River road in Rocky Mountain National Park is one of the original park roads built back in 1920 and used by those hardy souls back in the day who had a death wish. They drove rickety old cars with wooden wheels and like only two gears and didn’t think a thing about it. They were stout-hearted folk. The road runs from down at a sane elevation where you can breathe, and travels up in a convoluted fashion to an elevation where you can’t. Well you can if you stand perfectly still and carefully check to see if your chest is moving in and out and then don’t do anything more strenuous than tilt your head back slowly to gaze at Nature’s awe-inspiring wonders. Word of caution, if you tilt your head back too far or tilt it too swiftly, it will stay in that position for the rest of the trip and the only remedy for it is to descend to a lower elevation and drink a cold orange IZZE as fast as you can. This will cause your head to snap back into its proper position and you can proceed with your sightseeing.

Another word of caution. Do not smoke up here. The road is as smooth as a bare baby’s butt from where they have dragged the bodies off into the brush of those who have closed down their blood vessels even further from smoking. The complete and total cessation of oxygen to the central nervous system can and usually does cause the act of being to end. The devil nicotine gets it’s due up here, brother. But hey, this is America and it’s your choice.

The problem here is that it so beautiful up amongst the clouds and if you can breathe the air smells so good it makes you all tingly just to be outside that you will probably just throw caution to the winds and say the hell with it, I’m going. And if you’re that kind of person I’ll see you up there.

When you begin your journey from Endovalley and head on up the hill most of the first-timers have abandoned all hope, because once you start you must finish as the road is one-way all the way to the top. You can’t chicken out and jump out to walk back down. Who is going to get your car? Besides there are people coming up behind you with less sense than you have and they’ll blow their horns if you block the road. You will drive slowly unless you are definitely on a suicide mission, and travel up past one gorgeous view after another until you reach the summit 11,796′ and 11 miles later. It will have been worth it. First because you lived and secondly because you have just seen one of the most beautiful spots on earth. Besides it good to recharge the heart once in a while.

The image above is a panorama taken near the Chapin Creek trailhead and shows you that as high up as you are, you can go yet higher if you’ve a mind to. Most people don’t.