Rocky Mountain National Park Rocky Mountain National Park is a List of national parks of the United States, national park of the United States located approximately northwest of Denver in north-central Colorado, within the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains. The park is s ...

's Alpine Visitor Center is located at 11,796 feet (3,595 m) above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an mean, average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal Body of water, bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical ...

Fall River Pass Autumn, also known as fall (especially in US & Canada), is one of the four temperate seasons on Earth. Outside the tropics, autumn marks the transition from summer to winter, in September (Northern Hemisphere) or March ( Southern Hemispher ...

, one mile west of the highest point on

Trail Ridge Road Trail Ridge Road is the name for the stretch of U.S. Highway 34 (Colorado), 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 Be ...

and four miles east of the

Continental Divide A continental divide is a drainage divide on a continent such that the drainage basin on one side of the divide feeds into one ocean or sea, and the basin on the other side either feeds into a different ocean or sea, or else is endorheic, not ...

Milner Pass Milner Pass, elevation is a mountain pass in the Rocky Mountains of northern Colorado in the United States. It is located on the continental divide in the Front Range, within Rocky Mountain National Park, along the boundary between Larimer and ...

in the U.S. state of

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

. It is the highest visitor center in the

National Park System The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government, within the US Department of the Interior. The service manages all national parks; most national monuments; and other natural, historical, and recreational ...

. The Alpine Visitor Center includes

restrooms A public toilet, restroom, bathroom or washroom is a room or small building with toilets (or urinals) and sinks for use by the general public. The facilities are available to customers, travelers, employees of a business, school pupils or pris ...

, exhibits on the

alpine tundra Alpine tundra is a type of natural region or biome that does not contain trees because it is at high elevation, with an associated harsh climate. As the latitude of a location approaches the poles, the threshold elevation for alpine tundra gets ...

ecosystem, and a gift shop operated by the park's non-profit partner organization, the Rocky Mountain Conservancy. The visitor center opens around

Memorial Day Memorial Day (originally known as Decoration Day) is a federal holiday in the United States for mourning the U.S. military personnel who died while serving in the United States Armed Forces. It is observed on the last Monday of May. It i ...

and closes around mid-October due to snow and the extreme winter environment. In mid-summer, the visitor center is also usually accessible by Old Fall River Road, a 9-mile dirt road open to one-way, uphill vehicle traffic. Views from the Alpine Visitor Center include the Mummy Range, the Fall River Valley, and Trail Ridge to the east and the Never Summer and Medicine Bow ranges to the west and north. Hiking opportunities include the 1/4-mile round-trip Alpine Ridge Trail, commonly referred to as "Huffer's Hill," and the 8-mile round-trip Ute Trail to

. Park Rangers provide park orientation and interpretive programs on the

. Additional gift and food services at Fall River Pass are provided at the concession-operated Trail Ridge Store and Cafe.

References

External links

* Buildings and structures in Larimer County, Colorado Buildings and structures in Rocky Mountain National Park National Park Service visitor centers {{Colorado-struct-stub