May 30 - The Alpine Ridge Road at the top of the World

Going from east to west through the park requires taking a road that goes up past the treeline into alpine tundra at 12,000 feet.



Not only are you perched on the edge of the abyss as the road switches back and forth, the remaining snowbanks loom as tall as the rv as we worked our way up to the summit. We learned that the summit had only been open for about 10 days.




The trip was worth it with a spectacular view of tops of the Rocky Mountains that we had been looking up at from our campsites and hikes.




On the way down into the west side of the park, we discovered where the Colorado River gets its start. According to the ranger, it is a high snowbank on the side of the precipice that we just came down. We stopped for lunch (meeting a fellow Navion owner) and walked to a stream that was only about 20 feet wide at this point. Hard to believe that this was the beginning of the mighty Colorado River that we saw in Grand Canyon, Glen Canyon, and the like, as it made its way west.