Here is the photographic best of my explorings, from before I started writing about it. These are from the months I was living in Fort Collins. Unless otherwise stated, photos are from Rocky Mountain National Park. Descriptions are below the photo.
Upper Beaver Meadows, Nov. 2010. My first hike in Rocky Mountain National Park after moving. I was still living in the Fort Collins La Quinta at this point. The snow at these lower elevations was sparse, but was already snowshoe-deep at higher places like Bear Lake. At first I kept to short, simple hikes that stayed near roads like this one, as I gained my bearings in the park.
Hallett Peak from Storm Pass, Nov. 2010. In the first few months, I took lots of drives through the area and especially RMNP with maps, learning the roads that were open for winter. I would stop at the pull outs and parking lots and see what trails started from them and where they went.
Base of Eagle Cliff Mountain, Nov. 2010. There is a spot just before you pass through the Beaver Meadows entrance station where the elk tend to congregate in winter. Nearly every time I went to the park in winter there were at least some elk resting or eating here.
Hidden Valley, Nov. 2010. This lone bull elk was digging into the snow and eating the grass; he actually has a little patch of snow on his head from rutting around. This day was my introduction to the bitter, windy cold of the Colorado Front Range. At this point I was still green and lacked real winter clothes beyond a few heavy jackets. It was so windy I had to kneel in the lee of my car to keep steady enough to shoot. I could only stay out and take a few photos because I lacked heavy enough gloves and pants to last very long with the bitter cold, and the wind was picking up snow and driving it into me like millions of tiny ice missiles.
Big Thompson River and the Great Divide from Moraine Park, Dec. 2010. Evidence of the winter winds can be seen in the clouds of snow being kicked up on the mountainsides.
Coyote Ridge, Fort Collins, Jan. 2011. This is a really nice little hike across some grassy fields and then up the ridge of the first 'hogsback' that mark the beginning of the Rockies just to the west of Fort Collins. I made a few hikes up here in the dark to take sunrise photos and never got any good shots, but they were lots of fun.
Coyote Ridge, Fort Collins, Jan. 2011. Tiny tracks to a tiny home.
Coyote Ridge, Fort Collins, Jan. 2011. The fields along the trail up the ridge. I love that the plains run smack into the Rocky Mountains, there are no 'transitional' rolling hills like back east. Look east, see plains; look west, see towering mountains.
Coyote Ridge, Fort Collins, Jan. 2011.This Desert Cottontail gave me about 8 seconds to grab one good photo, and one blurry one.
Deer Mountain, alongside US 36, Jan. 2011. Not too many other people in the park this cold, cold day. (This is the day I discovered my car's thermometer went into the negatives.) So when I spotted a pair of elk cows munching right next to the road, I just put the car in park and shot out the window.
Colorado State Highway 14, outside Walden, Jan. 2011. A lonely drive up to the high valley called "North Park." The Medicine Bow Mountains are in the distance.
Routt National Forest, on Colorado State Highway 125, Jan. 2011. This is during the same drive from the above photo. I drove south from Walden on 125 to Granby, where I took US-40 to I-70. I checked online to make sure the road through the pass was open, it was one of the few that were that day. Saw lots of snowmobilers playing in the forest.
Bierstadt Lake, Jan. 2011. Don't know what kind of bird this is, but he was mighty interested in my Clif Bar when I took a break during one of my first snowshoe hikes. Bierstadt Lake lies at 9,416 feet, and is named after Albert Bierstadt, one of my favorite painters.
Hidden Valley, Jan. 2011. This proves that I am, in fact, in Colorado. In summer in this spot I'd be ankle-deep in a creek.
Bierstadt Moraine, Feb. 2011. I snapped this photo of the Continental Divide during a difficult snowshoe up the steep moraine with spotty snow cover.
Emerald Lake, Feb. 2011. This was another cold, windy day in RMNP. Emerald is the last of a trio of alpine lakes (with Nymph and Dream) that make a great hike from Bear Lake trailhead. While I was eating my frozen lunch I spotted three guys making their way down the valley between Flattop Mountain (right) and Hallett Peak (left) on splitboards. They told me that the hike up was so windy they could hardly stand upright on the summit of Flattop. I had planned to walk around the lake, but the blistering wind made me turn back after eating.
Dream Lake, Feb. 2011. On the way back to the trailhead during the hike from the above photo, I took refuge in the trees to warm up a bit and took this photo looking back along the length of the lake. You can see the trio of splitboarders making their way back on the frozen lake.
Alberta Falls Trail, April 2011. A slightly distressed self-portrait during a snowshoe hike to see a frozen Alberta falls. I had tried to push on and follow the trail (yeah right) to Mills Lake about a mile further up, but soon lost my way. Despite not knowing the trails past the falls, my safety valve was the fact that I could simply retrace my tracks back to my car. But when the unpredicted snow rolled in, I had to quickly head back. Some trails are blazed for winter use with little orange metal flags attached high up on trees, this one was not. This was one of the few hikes when my hydration tube/valve froze.
Alberta Falls Trail, April 2011. This bridge provides some scale for the amount of snow that sticks around during the winter. It is interesting that my introduction of RMNP was in the winter, so 'normal' for me is snowy. Walking this same bridge later when free of snow, down on the proper level, felt weird.
Elk Hotspot at the Beaver Meadows Entrance, April 2011. These guys were chowing down on yet another windy day.
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