Rocky Mountain National Park Transportation Tips by richiecdisc Top 5 Page for this destination

America The Beautiful

Rocky Mountain National Park is not well-serviced by mass transit as is the norm in the United States and its national parks. After six months of traveling around the western US and the many amazing national parks out there, I found only a handful that were truly accessible by mass transit. Thankfully, even in some of the parks that are not serviced by bus or train, the parks themselves are implementing shuttles within.

Rocky Mountain National Park does have a free park shuttle that runs along Bear Lake Road, it's most popular and hence congested scenic drive. Trail Ridge Road is a much longer remote road and would probably not work well with a shuttle but only time will tell if one comes to pass. Let's hope so.

In general, a visit to Rocky National Park is most easily done by your own vehicle. A smaller one is necessary on some of the more winding scenic drives. We were on a six-month camping trip around the US National Parks and driving was our only option, allowing us to carry all the gear we needed for our various endeavors.

Sample distances: Rocky Mountain National Park to Denver: 70 miles/90 minutes. RMNP to Boulder: 40 miles/1 hour. RMNP to Fort Collins: 45 miles/1.15 hours. RMNP to Mesa Verde National Park: 500 miles/10.5 hours.

Rocky Mountain National Park charges $20 for a carload to enter for up to 7 days. Single persons can enter on foot, motorcycle, or bike for $10 for the same time period. We were traveling with the America The Beautiful Pass which allows entry into all US National Parks and Federally Administered Lands for up to a year for a carload for $80. This represents one of the greatest values in all of travel.

Mode: TO

Type: Car/Motor Home