Rocky Mountain High National Park In Colorado Has Quiet Backcountry
Every summer, Rocky Mountain National Park’s roads, campgrounds and parking lots are a sea of license plates.
But finding quiet areas isn’t as difficult as people might think, says Jeff Maugans, chief of visitor operations.
“To most people, this is a windshield park. They get out of their cars at overlooks to take pictures,” Maugans said.
“In spite of the 3 million people we have yearly, we don’t have hundreds of thousands in the backcountry. Once you get a little ways from the trailhead, it thins out.”
The 415-square-mile park offers 120 backcountry campsites, according to Barry Sweet, park backcountry office manager. Some of the most unexplored areas are near the northern boundary like North Forks and Hague Creek.
Sweet says about 30 percent of the people who come into his office want to camp where people are few and far between.
“We spend a lot of time with them so they can get the most out of their trip,” Sweet said. “We find out what kind of experience they want and then help them make their dreams come true.”
At 14,255 feet above sea level atop Longs Peak, hikers can explore anything that pops into their minds.
The park has five public campgrounds that allow for stays up to seven days.
In the winter, 355 miles of hiking trails give way to snowshoeing and cross-country skiing.
Primarily during the peak summer months, the park offers programs on more than 60 topics to educate visitors on its beauty and grace.
In addition, the Rocky Mountain Nature Association, a non-profit organization, has brought insight on wildlife, wildflowers, ecology and geology.
In 1962, Betty Willard started an educational program as part of the nature association.
Her first seminar, the first in the nation, had 14 people. Now, 21 national parks offer similar educational seminars. This year, the association will hold 65 seminars at the park, ranging from a few hours to a week long. Willard still has her hand in a few of them.
“They learn more than what they would just on a nature walk. It lets them delve in as deep as they want,” Willard said. “It gets them really interested, and they start doing things by themselves.”
After years of working with people, Willard has developed a comfortable way of explaining things in a way people will remember.
“I’ve gotten to the point where I don’t have to say it in scientific terms. I get them relaxed and looking, and they make their own associations,” Willard said.
“It doesn’t matter if people know the technical name, but just so they have an appreciation of life and variety of life and what it needs from us. A willingness to share Earth and not take from it.”
Beyond the formal education groups, visitors are buying books and learning for themselves.
The biggest sellers are hands-on books about the park, said Curt Buchholtz, executive director of the nature association, which publishes such books.
Information on the park is published in five languages, and any profits from the books go back to the park in more studies and books, he said.
A spinoff of the association is the Rocky Mountain National Park Associates, which has done fund-raising since 1986.
Buchholtz, who also leads the fund-raisers, said the organization has completed more than $1.5 million in trail improvements, historical preservation and other projects since its inception.
The group is in the middle of updating a long-term plan, but its biggest project is on the horizon, the $1.4 million Fall River Visitors Center, which is scheduled to be completed this year.
Buchholtz said 48 percent of the donations his group gets are from people outside Colorado.
“I’ve seen a tremendous improvement in people’s attitude since the first Earth Day (in 1970). I think we’re coming to balance in this park,” Willard said. “The people I meet are a select group, but when I listen to people in the park, there is a much higher consciousness. We just need a time track to have it reiterated and reiterated to new visitors.”
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