Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mountain National Park closes for season, set to reopen in May of next year

Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mountain National Park closed for the season on Wednesday. The highest continuous paved road in the U.S. isn't designed to be an all-season road with few guardrails and no shoulders. 

Winter driving conditions, drifting snow, high winds and below-freezing temperatures occur above 10,000 feet. Trail Ridge Road has 11 miles above 11,500 feet, cresting at an elevation of 12,183 feet above sea level.      

Trail Ridge Road is closed at Many Parks Curve on the east side of RMNP and at the Colorado River Trailhead on the west side of the park. According to the park, many popular driving destinations for this time of year are still open. Those include Bear Lake Road, Moraine Park, and Horseshoe Park on the east side of the park as well as the section of Trail Ridge Road along the Kawuneeche Valley on the west side of the park.

The park said the road is closed to through travel for the season and closure points on the road may fluctuate this fall. 

Trail Ridge Road normally opens the last week in May. This year it opened on Friday, May 26.   

For more information about Rocky Mountain National Park visit www.nps.gov/romo or call the park's Information Office at (970) 586-1206. For a recorded status line on Trail Ridge Road please call (970) 586-1222. 

Additional Information from Rocky Mountain National Park: 

Old Fall River Road closed for the season to vehicles on October 3. Trail Ridge Road and Old Fall River Road will remain open to bicycles, hikers, and people walking leashed pets through November 30. Leashed pets and bicycles are only allowed on the road, not on side trails. On December 1, both of these roads will revert to "winter trail status" which means that bicycles and leashed pets will no longer be permitted beyond the closed gates, but pedestrians, snowshoers and skiers are.