Why Is Rocky Mountain National Park so Extraordinary?

Rocky Mountain National Park in October ©Huston 2022

Introduction

In the 1800s people started noticing a piece of land found in Wyoming and the borders of Montana and Idaho that was unlike anything previously seen in the United States. This land was so indescribable that people in Washington D.C. did not believe it existed. 

After an expedition took place, people brought proof back to President Grant and he established  Yellowstone National Park–the first National Park–in 1872.

 

While Grant set this aside originally, congress is the one who set aside the land for national parks now. 

Since 1872 there have been 62 other National Parks established in the United States. Colorado is home to four national parks; Mesa Verde, Black Canyon of the Gunnison, Great Sand Dunes, and Rocky Mountain National Park. 

In an interview with Dr. Leslie Mikesell, she describes what a national park is. “Property and land that has been set aside by the people. Set aside for inspirational, educational, and recreational value. [People have] taken the best of the land and made it public instead of private.” 

National parks are very common places for families, friends, and solo travelers to spend quality time breathing in the scenery, science, and life these parks offer. Although it is not only recreational purposes these parks offer, they are great places for scientific study. 

Mikesell mentions the importance of scientific discoveries that are found in these parks during her interview. “They are being used for scientific laboratories,” bats, marine environments, and even volcanoes are being studied and real research supported by various publications is happening. 

“It is not only looking at what has and is happening and explaining how it happened.”

Of the 63 national parks, Colorado hosts four national parks; Mesa Verde, Black Canyon of the Gunnison, Great Sand Dunes, and Rocky Mountain National Park. 

In a survey of 25 people, very few people knew how many national parks Colorado homes. 

©Huston 2022

Human History of Rocky Mountain National Park

Rocky Mountain National Park was established in 1915, the second park in Colorado and 10 in the nation. It was during the Great Depression that this park started to come together. In 1933 the Civilian Conservation Corps was founded, which helped young men who were unemployed/not skilled get jobs working in park environments. 

The National Park Service states, “young male recruits at six camps built roads, trails, and buildings; put out wildfires; planted trees; and managed predators.” Trail Ridge Road, a popular byway, was built during this time and took travelers through many sceneries and incredible heights. 

Trail Ridge Road goes up and through the Rocky Mountains in the park, and since it can snow very severely in Colorado the road closes during the winter. The road covers 48 miles, from Estes Park to Grand Lake, and has elevations above 11,000 feet. It has been said that the Native Americans who protected this land before anyone else, probably wore the Trail Ridge Road path. 

According to a pamphlet/ map given by park rangers upon entry into the park, congress designated the park as wilderness in 2009, under the 1964 Wilderness Act. The majority of the park is wilderness. The pamphlet is designed by the National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior. 

The pamphlet states, “decades of fire suppression created dense undergrowth, which only increased threat to surrounding communities and caused changes in the forest composition.” Because of this, there are multiple areas for research and science within the park. The park is also home to the Continental Divide Learning Center. 

Rocky Mountain National Park has over 2000 hiking trails that range from mild to very difficult, but take hikers to new heights and breathtaking views. There are also over 150 lakes ranging in all kinds of sizes. 

Sprague Lake in October ©Huston 2022

The park offers a fantastic opportunity for photos, with the vast types of terrain that can be found. The park can also be a place for backcountry skiers and snowboarders to go. Going to the park during summer and winter are two different yet magical experiences. Summer offers an easier time to go hiking, driving, picnicking, and doing those kinds of things. It might be easier to see animals too. Winter turns this park into a winter wonderland, creating a special place during holiday time. Winter is also a time when elk come down from the mountains. 

Rocky Mountain National Park can be entered through Estes Park, a very popular mountain town in Colorado. October is a popular time to go to Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park because of the elk that come down through the mountains. 

While both of these places are close to each other and located in Colorado's popular Rocky Mountains only 18 people or 72% of the people surveyed had been to Rocky Mountain National Park before. 

©Huston 2022

Geological History of Rocky Mountain National Park

Ancestral Rockies

Mikesell continued her interview by talking about the geology of the Rocky Mountains, which are a part of the park. The Rockies themselves have only been around for a short time in geologic time.

The mountains that were there before the Rockies are called the Ancestral Rockies, “they were probably built 285 million years ago and they eroded away.” From Colorado down to the Mississippi River there is a “huge wedge of sediment” that consists of the sediments that eroded away from the Ancestral Rockies. 

The Ancestral Rockies are not the only big change that has occurred where the current Rocky Mountains stand. Colorado used to be underwater, “about 100 million years ago [Colorado was] underwater, so [Colorado] went from a mountain 285 million years ago to underwater 100 million years ago to 75 million years ago building more mountains.” This range is very vast and dynamic, and while the changes seem dramatic, a lot of time has occurred between and during these processes. 

Rocky Mountains

The Rockies range from Alaska all the way to Mexico and is one of the longest mountain ranges in the world. 

Mikesell gets into her element when talking about the geology of the park. The Laramide Orogeny, a mountain-building process, is what built the Rocky Mountains along with many other mountain formations. The Rockies are unique, as Mikesell puts it, because “most mountains are along tectonic plate boundaries, and these are not, these are in the interior of a continent.” 

“The rocks themselves are about 1.7 billion years old; they are typical metamorphic rock with some sedimentary rock over it,” says Mikesell. While metamorphic rock (schist and gneiss) is the main rock type found in the park, igneous (granite rock) and sedimentary rock (dinosaur fossils) can be found. Metamorphic rock is a different type of rock that has gone through intense heat and pressure to turn into a new rock type. 

There are two types of igneous rocks, intrusive and extrusive. Both form from cooling magma but extrusive is cooled above Earth's surface while intrusive is cooled below Earth's surface. Sedimentary rocks are all kinds of fossils and other materials from the Earth that form together whether it be from weathering, dissolution, erosion, or lithification. 

Gneiss ©Huston 2022

The light and dark banding found on a rock in the park is a telltale sign that it is gneiss. 

Other than the history of the rocks found in the park, Rocky Mountain National Park shows signs of glaciers. One of the many tells of glaciation is a u-shaped valley; many can be found within the park. A glacier is a compaction of snow that has been recrystallized to form ice. 

Through the Paleozoic, Mesozoic, and Cenozoic Eras along with the Glacial Period, Rocky Mountain National Parks has gone through many different extremes. One thing that has always stayed consistent with the park is erosion, the park is eroding right now, even if an everyday person can not see it. 

Why do people need Rocky Mountain National Park?

National parks are reserved for cultural and natural resources and for preserving history. But what makes Rocky Mountain National Park so special? Besides the breathtaking views, making this a great place to take professional pictures, take field trips, hike, picnic and so on, the park is a safe space for animals. 

The park is home to so many animals including elk, beavers, bears, mountain lions, and even bats. The park also protects threatened and endangered species the Mexican Spotted Owl, Canada Lynx, Greenback Cutthroat Trout, and North American Wolverine are all threatened.

Mikesell concluded her interview by saying she has “no problem” paying the entry fees to get into national parks–$30 at Rocky Mountain National Park as of Oct. 29, 2022–because the money goes to keeping up the park and keeping them “open for future generations.”

It is easy to understand why the park is important to maintain and keep safe for physical reasons, but that is not the only reason the park is important. 

Going to this park allows visitors to take a deep breath in and let it out through their mouths. The air is crisp and there is a sense of relaxation and contentment. The park expects nothing from visitors other than respect, and in turn, people get to see, feel and understand the world a little more. 

It is an enchanting thing to see history in places other than a museum and everyone should go. If not to Rocky Mountain National Park, any national park will do.

Get out and adventure while supporting something so extraordinary. 

©Huston 2022