ESTES PARK, Colo. — A couple strapped in their snowshoes, children ran their sleds back up a hill and backcountry skiers practiced using avalanche beacons — an average winter day at Hidden Valley, tucked along a curve of Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP).
The former ski area is now home to the only sledding hill in the park and is a great launching point for wintry backcountry adventures. Picnic tables dot the base near the parking lot for respite after a long day, and a warming hut is open on weekends and holidays to escape the cold. On most weekends, the parking lot fills up as people make memories of sledding, skiing and riding in Colorado’s most popular national park, which turns 109 on Friday.
But the simple pleasures that are enjoyed these days are informed by a much more complicated past.
Digital Originals
Rocky Mountain National Park turns 109: A timeline of notable events and figures
Robert Garrison 10:37 AM, Jan 26, 2024
Hidden Valley’s beginning reaches as far back as 1917, when skiers first began ripping down the slopes. The Rocky Mountain National Park Ski Club, which was established in 1931, held a ski tournament at Hidden Valley that June, which helped stimulate more interest, according to the National Park Service (NPS). The paving of Trail Ridge Road in 1936 brought even more people to that part of the park.