Rocky Mountain National Park Alpine Visitor Center and Beatrice Willard

Opened in 1965, and located at 11,796' the Rocky Mountain National Park Alpine Visitor Center is the highest visitor center in any national park. The parking lot and viewing areas provide incredible views of the surrounding peaks and valleys. Inside you'll find a gift shop and a small museum where you can learn about the alpine environment. Rocky Mountain National Park is committed to the preservation of the alpine ecosystem, and many of the strategies they employ today can be attributed to Beatrice Willard.

Beatrice Willard, born in California in 1925 to a family of dedicated naturalists, was herself an acclaimed botanist and ecologist, best known for her extensive and revolutionary ecologic studies in Rocky Mountain National Park. After earning her bachelor’s degree at Stanford, Willard traveled to Europe on a fellowship where she first began studying alpine tundra ecology. She “dreamed of becoming a National Park Service naturalist-interpreter” and became one of the very first women to actually do so. 

Willard moved to Boulder, Colorado in 1957, where she lived most of her life. She earned her graduate degree and Ph.D. at the University of Colorado Boulder with the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research working under Dr. John Marr. At this time, she began studying tundra vegetation in Rocky Mountain National Park, noticing that the vegetation in these climates was almost completely destroyed. From there she started documentation on all the vegetation that grew in the tundra and under what conditions each flourished. Most notably, she documented how tourists have affected the tundra climate zones in Rocky Mountain National Park since traffic has increased.

She promoted paved walking paths in the areas of Toll Pass, Rock Cut, Forest Canyon Overlook, and Fall River Pass. These were all near paved parking lots, which attracted thousands of visitors daily. In the Rock Cut area, she observed that there were no set paths during the first 26 years of use; tourists wandered at will. After 40 years of studying the alpine tundra, she worked with the National Park Service to determine a solution to the ecological damage. Willard’s research emphasized the importance of designated walkways for tourists, which encouraged people to stay on the path and helped mitigate the effects of wandering tourists, such as littering and flower picking. Per her recommendation, the Nation Park Service installed paved paths in the alpine tundra, to encourage tourists to stay on the path. With this development, visitors remained on the path a majority of the time, greatly promoting the growth of the alpine vegetation. Two of her Alpine Tundra Research Plots on Trail Ridge in Rocky Mountain National Park are now preserved as historic sites: Rock Cut Research Plot and Forest Canyon Research Plot. These research plots are some of the oldest alpine tundra research plots in the world and likely in the National Park System.

In her research, she documented the effects of littering on vegetation. To do so, she photographed and recorded a tin can that was left on the ground. In an interview, Bill Coors cited an instance of meeting Beatrice Williard. She showed him a picture of one of his tin cans on the alpine tundra; it is unclear if it is the same tin can that she documents in her paper. However, this picture did inspire Bill Coors’ environmental consciousness, which later encouraged him to invent the aluminum can. 

Willard died in Boulder, Colorado in 2003, aged 78 years. Some cite her 40 years of research on the tundra as her greatest achievement. She was dedicated to understanding human relationships with the environment, and how to mitigate damage while maintaining the enjoyment of the environment. She was ahead of her time, calling on the National Park Service to think about future generations and how we want them to experience the park and the environment in general.

"Beatrice Willard Obituary." Denver Post. Last modified January 15, 2003. https://www.legacy.com/us/

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Cooper, David J. "In Memoriam: Beatrice E. Willard, 19 December 1925-7 January 2003." Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research, vol. 35, no. 1, 2003, pp. 125-27. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/1552337. Accessed 5 Nov. 2022.

Nachman-Hunt, Nancy. "Bill Coors: There's Nothing Like the Original." GreenBiz. Last modified March 7,

    2001. https://www.greenbiz.com/article/bill-coors-theres-nothing-original.

Willard, Beatrice E., and John W. Marr. "Effects of Human Activities on Alpine Tundra Ecosystems in Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado." Biological Conservation 2, no. 4 (July 1970): 257-65.

Yost, Cheri and Chase Davies.“National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form for Willard, Beatrice, Alpine Tundra Research Plots, Rocky Mountain National Park.” Estes Park, CO: Rocky Mountain National Park, 2007. https://www.historycolorado.org/location/beatrice-willard-alpine-tundra-research-plots.