Unapologetically dangerous in Rocky Mountain National Park

Our four wheel drive adventure is worth the road less traveled

Hit the ❤️ if you’re enjoying the journey; it means more than you know! Thanks so much for being along for the ride.

Old Fall River Road in Rocky Mountain National Park was once a Native American and trapper trail, and was built by convicts with nothing but hand tools in the 1930s. The four-wheel-drive road was all it had been billed in the National Park literature: nothing but dirt (thankfully not too dusty or rutted this particular day) and steep. As Mike and I had read in the park brochure, there were no guardrails or other safety measures to be seen; the route was unapologetically dangerous. 

We crawled along the unpaved grade at the recommended fifteen miles per hour, heading ever uphill. The narrow, one-way dirt track was deserted after five p.m.—nobody else was nuts enough to take it on in the evening. Or, so we assumed, until we passed a man and woman walking down the track toward us, their expressions glum. They avoided eye contact and ignored my wave, so we assumed they didn’t want help. 

Around the next corner we came upon an aging Ford Mustang, mired in the the soft dirt shoulder of one of the sharply angled turns. 

“Guess they didn’t read the four-wheel-drive sign,” I said.

“Or ignored it. We’ve done that a time or two,” Mike replied. 

So we had, and usually to our regret.