Cycling Rocky Mountain National Park

#1
Trail Ridge
USA, CO
#2
Trail Ridge (Estes Park)
USA, CO
#3
Trail Ridge (Grand Lake)
USA, CO
#4
Bear Lake Road
USA, CO
#5
Old Fall River Road
USA, CO

Climb List: Rocky Mountain National Park
(sort by distance, difficulty, elevation and more)

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Statistics: View Tutorial

Total Climbs: 5
Top 100 World: 0
Avg. FIETS (Top 5): 7.5

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PJAMM TRIPS ADVENTURE STARTER BUNDLES

Check out PJAMM Adventure's prepackaged (self-guided) cycling trips. They will help you plan, document and conquer your next adventure.
ALL TRIPS
Browse all of our prepackaged trips and find your next adventure!
Colorado: Front Range
United States (CO)
20 ROUTES
46 POIs
ROUTE STATS (TOTAL)
563.5
mi
DISTANCE
73,545
ft
ELEV. GAIN
RMNP: Trail Ridge Road
United States (CO)
13 ROUTES
33 POIs
ROUTE STATS (TOTAL)
258.2
mi
DISTANCE
25,530
ft
ELEV. GAIN

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FULL SUMMARY

Rocky Mountain National Park encompasses 265,461 acres and was the 8th US national park (established in 1915 by President Woodrow Wilson).  The park was designated a UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve.

CYCLING TRAIL RIDGE 

ROCKY MOUNTAIN NATIONAL PARK, COLORADO

John Johnson PJAMM Cycling with bike at high point of Trail Ridge bike climb

High point of the climb, 12,144’

US Top 10 Most Scenic Bike Climb.

Garmin has a different opinion . . .

Traversing Rocky Mountain National Park, and offering spectacular views along the giant switchbacks 20 miles below a summit that tops out at a whopping 12,000', Trail Ridge Road is the highest continuous paved road in the United States.  Trail Ridge is also the second longest bike climb in the U.S. and the fifth longest in the world.    

John Johnson PJAMM Cycling with bike at high point of Trail Ridge bike climb

The road passes the Continental Divide at Milner Pass (elevation 10,758’), about 8.9 miles down Trail Ridge Road after cresting the summit of our climb.

John Johnson PJAMM Cycling with bike at high point of Trail Ridge bike climb

SOME GREAT HIKES IN ROCKY MOUNTAIN NATIONAL PARK

(OFF OF OR VERY NEAR THE CYCLING ROUTE)

Mount Ida, 9.6 miles roundtrip, gain 2,465’ to 12,889’.  A strenuous hike

Photo:  All Trails

Ypsilon Lake Trail, 8.1 miles roundtrip, gaining 2,352’’ to 10,760. A strenuous hike.

Photo:  All Trails

Mummy Mountain Trail (Mummy Mania)

Photo and description:  Matt and Allison Doing Dangerous Deeds -- we think so!

This is likely the most challenging “day” hike in the park.

Good hiking resources for the park include the following:

HOW TO GET AROUND IN ROCKY MOUNTAIN NATIONAL PARK

 

Rocky Mountain NP bicycle page.

Of course our first choice is always by bicycle. However, most of the millions of visitors to the park get around in motor vehicles.  There is also a free shuttle that runs from about May to October.

WHERE TO STAY WHEN VISITING ROCKY MOUNTAIN NATIONAL PARK

Claire’s Restaurant

We haven’t stayed in Estes, but we ate there and, yep, worth it!

The place to stay when cycling (and hiking the trails near the cycling route) is hands down Estes Park.  This is a moderately sized resort town of about 6,000 people that acts as headquarters to Rocky Mountain National Park.  It is the closest town to the park’s eastern border.

We have researched and documented for this page the 30 hardest and most difficult bike climbs ever included in the Tour de France. 

The all-time hardest bike climbs of the Tour de France can be viewed on this page via the map (zoom in to view climbs in particular areas), by Climb Cards (photo and stats) or by a detailed list of the climbs that can be arranged in metric or imperial units by difficulty, distance (longest climbs in the area), altitude gained, highest elevation (highest summit), average grade (sort the grades by varying distances), lowest start point, etc. Click on "Climb Page" to jump to the detail page for that particular bike climb. We feel this page provides a good summary of the top, hardest and best bicycling climbs of the Tour de France.

The 10 hardest bike climbs ever to appear in the Tour de France are %TOP10 

Also visit our 2023 Tour de France Home Page for all the stages, climbs, details of the 2023 Tour de France as well as all the historical data for the Grand Tour.