I've been revisiting a lot of 2016 road photo albums on the Surewhynotnow blog. I have a ton from the Mountain West region as a whole but one of the first up was US 34 over Trail Ridge:
http://surewhynotnow.blogspot.com/2018/06/2016-sumer-mountain-trip-part-2-rocky.html
I could swear I’d read something that stated US 6 over Loveland Pass was the highest point on the US Highway system. But looking it up, Trail Ridge does reach a higher elevation than Loveland Pass, but not by much (12183 vs 11990 feet).
Actually, now that I think about it, that may have been referring to the highest point on the system open year-round.
Quote from: US 89 on July 08, 2018, 12:52:26 AM
I could swear I'd read something that stated US 6 over Loveland Pass was the highest point on the US Highway system. But looking it up, Trail Ridge does reach a higher elevation than Loveland Pass, but not by much (12183 vs 11990 feet).
Actually, now that I think about it, that may have been referring to the highest point on the system open year-round.
Yeah, I had completely forgotten US 34 was slightly higher until I started the recent 2016 Mountain Trip series. The odd thing is that pretty much there is every bit of documentation to show that unlike several other National Parks that US 34 does exist within Rocky Mountain National Park itself. I think the Trail Ridge Road was completed just at the right time for a situation like that to occur. California has some instances of State Maintained roadways in National Parks as well but on the whole they are pretty rare unless a National Park built up around an existing highway.
I love Rocky Mountain National Park and it might be my favorite place in the whole USA. It was especially interesting to 12-year-old me, as I marveled at the fact that the US34 in the park is the same route 34 that went past my neighborhood in Chicago's western suburbs.
I took a random picture in 2012 on US40 at the western end of US 34, to add to the mix
(https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7437/27496859374_91064d52c8_c.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/HTNAjj)
CO-US40-US34N (https://flic.kr/p/HTNAjj) by Paul Drives (https://www.flickr.com/photos/138603251@N02/), on Flickr
Damn. I've been to Rocky Mountain on a family vacation, and on a college geology trip. I'd love to go out there again, just can't afford to do it.
I finally got the chance in early June to visit Rocky Mtn National Park for the first time in over 20 years. One thing for sure, although I grew up at high altitude in the Rockies as a kid, I sure don't have the tolerance for that altitude like I used to! I guess years at sea level will do that to a person. I was also a tad dismayed at the pine beetle damage that's occurred in the past few years as well as the lack of snowpack from the mild winter, but otherwise that's such a fantastic experience to travel that high.
I also was able to drive the newly reopened highway from Estes Park into Loveland that was damaged by the floods a few years ago. Needless to say I hope the improvements and reconstruction can withstand the next major flood (which is "when", not "if", given the tendencies of those occasional raging storms in that part of the state)