Trail Ridge Road opens, Mount Evans closes
One popular high-elevation road has opened as scheduled, but another has been delayed by the weather.
Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mountain National Park opened at 11 a.m. Saturday, continuing a Memorial Day weekend tradition. But, the Colorado Department of Transportation announced Saturday, Mount Evans Highway will be closed through the weekend.
Trail Ridge Road, which spans 48 miles from Estes Park to Grand Lake, will close at 8 p.m. because melting snow will likely freeze as temperatures drop through the evening, the park said in a news release. Road crews and rangers will evaluate conditions each morning to determine whether the road is safe to reopen.
Plow operators with the National Park Service typically begin clearing snow from the road in mid-April. This year, according to the release, crews plowed snow drifts that averaged 18-22 feet tall.
The scenic stretch, which climbs more than 12,183 feet, has historically opened on Memorial Day weekend, except in 2002, when conditions allowed for the highlytrafficked highway to open May 7, and in 1943, when it didn’t open until June 26.
Meanwhile on Mount Evans, drifting snow and icy roads have shut down travel to the summit, according to a CDOT news release. At the earliest, it will reopen on Tuesday, the release said.