We (I, wife, and eight-year-old daughter) took the Alpine Visitor Center tour and Ben was our host. Our tour left at 8 AM from the visitor’s center (as a tip, make sure you go to the exact address, as there is more than one entrance to the center). The tour is in a van and including us, there were around 10 to 12 people in total. From a COVID standpoint, it was optional whether you wanted to wear a mask and while most people did at first, by the end most were not so if this is a big deal for you, you may want to pass taking this for now. Also, keep in mind they do not provide any drinks or snacks. I definitely recommend a good-sized water bottle to stay hydrated, especially since you are in the mountains (there are some limited bathroom steps along the way).
Ben is very engaging and it’s clear he loves his job and he’s been doing it for over 10 years. Even though my wife and I went to the park 10 years ago and took a different tour, we learned quite a bit. The main part of the tour is the Old Fall River Road, which is only open for three to four months a year. You get beautiful views and get to experience all of the different ecosystems (such as subalpine, tundra, and so on).
The tour involved quite a few stops to get us and walk around briefly and Ben was more than happy to take family photos. There are a couple of stops where you can do some brief hiking, but in most cases, it was just to get out for five or ten minutes to look around and then continue.
Our tour was supposed to end at noon, but we were running late and got back around 12:30. He does another tour at 1 and mentioned he is not typically late. This wasn’t an issue for us, but I would recommend not having any reservations until at least 12:30 just in case. The only other point is while we loved the Old Fall River Road, that was the majority of the tour as that ends at the Alpine Visitors Center, and then we made some stops along Trail Ridge Road as we headed back. So while that was fine with us, if you were looking for other stops (like for example along Bear Lake Road) you will be disappointed.
The only other surprise is that we found out that we would get a pass that we could use to get into the park at any time for the rest of the day. While that was a nice touch, I wish we would have known this in advance, as we already made an online reservation for the day and paid for it. Oh well, the parks need all of the help it can get.
The bottom line is we had a great tour and if we come back again, we would take a different tour with Ben to see the other parts of the park!