John Cletheroe's
USA and Canada Holiday Hints

Rocky Mountains

"Stood alone on a mountain top,
staring out at the Great Divide."
I could go east, I could go west,
it was all up to me to decide.
Just then I saw a young hawk flying
and my soul began to rise.
And pretty soon my heart was singing."
- Bob Seger And The Silver Bullet Band: Roll Me Away

The Rocky Mountains, often simply called "the Rockies", form the major mountain chain of North America. They run roughly north-north-west to south-south-east for about two thousand miles from British Columbia and Alberta to New Mexico, passing though Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Utah and Colorado.

There are numerous highly scenic areas in the Rockies, including the following:

In Alberta and British Columbia, the various National Parks of the Canadian Rockies.
In Idaho, the Sawtooth Range.
In Montana, Glacier National Park and the Bitterroot Range.
In Wyoming, Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks and the Bighorn Range.
In Colorado, Rocky Mountain National Park and the San Juan Mountains.

The scenery in the Rockies tends to be alpine-like, but with warmer and drier weather in the summer. The Rockies in summer have also been described as being like the best of Scottish mountain scenery with Italian weather.

Except for Interstate and major US Highways, most of the passes over the Rockies are closed during winter. Those in the south are opened for the summer considerably earlier than those in the north.

Almost all of the roads in the Rockies marked on road maps are good quality paved roads with very few tight hairpin turns and perfectly safe. Traffic levels tend to be very light compared to Europe. Unlike in Europe, navigating a mountain pass in the USA or Canada does not mean crawling behind a procession of coaches and lorries round numerous tight hairpin turns.

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Most recently modified 15-Sep-00