Rocky Mountain Flowers

Here are photos of some of the flowers that I promised more than a week ago.

 There are wild roses blooming everywhere.

The wild white poppy flowers surprise me.

There are different kinds of yellow blossoms everywhere ...

 I don't understand how these flowers can grow and thrive in seemingly arid soil and rocks.

The yellow ones above and the purple flowers below grow among the rocks along the Big Thompson River that flows past the cabin we rent. It was a joy to watch them blossom and develop over the two weeks we were there.

And, of course, the Paint Brush flowers are profuse in the higher elevations.

Back in The Rockies

We left our Michigan cottage a bit over a week ago and are now here ...

The other day we drove to the top of Trail Ridge Road which passes over those mountains in the above picture. There's more snow at the higher elevations than we've ever seen at this time of year ...

Up near the top, but below the snow fields we saw two male elk with magnificent racks. They weren't close enough together to get in the same photo.

The wild flowers are profuse throughout the mountains. I heard it said that the spring ones are late while the summer ones are blooming on time, so the display is magnificent. They'll be the subject of my next post.

Bear Lake Revisited

Bear Lake up in the Rocky Mountain National Park outside of Estes Park is one of our favorites.  This photo was taken in 2006.

In 2008 I made this quilt, "Bear Lake" from that photo.  Click here to see the posts about its creation.

Bear Lake - 45"x 34" (2008)

 

In the photo taken on this trip, you can see the big rock from which the previous photos were taken.

The brown trees are the result of Pine Needle Beetle damage.  Each year we see more brown trees on the east side of the park.  The damage is much greater over the Divide on the west side.

Enjoy these photos of the trail around the lake.

 There's been quite a bit of rain leaving big puddles on the trail.  This is a captured reflection in one of them.

... and another photo taken this year of the scene featured in the quilt.

Rocky Mountain Gorge

Since I shared photos of the top of these mountains I'm in for three weeks, here are photos of one the many gorges between them.  This one is the St. Vrain Gorge that runs between highway 7 and Lyons, Colorado.

It's all downhill from here.  Lee didn't touch the gas peddle once.

 The St. Vrain River runs through it.

 I don't know what happened that I got this shot.  It portrays the feeling of wonder and awe of this magnificent geography.

The Top of The Rocky Mountains

These are photos on Trail Ridge Road in the Rocky Mountain National Park taken with my iPhone.  Enjoy!

Shadows and Relfections in the Rockies

The most obvious play of shadows and sunshine is on the trails.
The more subtle ones are of individual trees on the rocks and boulders.
I happened to look down before my husband and I began walking after looking at a view across Bear Lake to catch our shadows together.
And a few days later I caught our side-by-side shadows reflected in Lily Lake.
Looking across Bear Lake to see the reflection of the trees in the water.
A future post will explain those brown colored trees.

More trees reflected in a small puddle of rainwater caught in the dip of a boulder.
The hollow of a huge boulder cradled this puddle that reflects the sky.
My husband was standing on the other side of a much larger puddle along a hiking path that reflects a lot of sky.
Plus, there are a few dappled shadows from the trees shading the path.