07-19 A Few More from RMNP

We spent the night in Amarillo, TX and will be close to the Oklahoma/Arkansas border tonight.
Here's a few more shots from Rocky Mountain National Park.

07-18 Day 49 and headed back east.

We had a great time in Pueblo West with John and Danese again and with their two beautiful and hysterically funny children, Jimmy and the irrepressible Helen.
Thanks guys.
We should be in Amarillo tonight and at Tom and Sandra’s Sunday.

07-16

We’re in Pueblo, CO and today we’ll stop at the Royal Gorge. Here’s a few more photos from RMNP.

07-15 Leaving Rocky Mountain National Park.

Today we will be headed back south to Pueblo for a visit with Elaine’s brother John and his family. There is a small park near by he wants us to visit so he’ll crank up his motor home and we’ll head out. I’ll keep shooting as long as the scenery changes but I’ll keep putting up photos from Rocky Mountain National Park for a day or two longer.
The small mouse like creature here is a pika. This one looks like a juvenile. The wide guy is a marmot and the other is a ground squirrel. (Its body markings are similar to a chipmunk but there are no facial markings.)

07-13 Back to the Tundra

Yesterday we returned to the Rocky High Country. There is a special feel standing above timberline apart from the views which both diminish and glorify the viewer. The wind blows constantly. Softly at times and at times with stiffness but you are always aware of it. The air has an invigorating crispness I’ve found nowhere else. The cleanness of it is more than noteworthy; it is unique. The light is extraordinary and incredibly alive. You feel it with the wind and the cool air and it is sensual. It takes you.
In rocky outcrops pikas, ground squirrels and an occasional marmot scurry already laying in their winter supply of food. They dart about quickly keenly aware of the dangers that swoop from above and carry them off. Hawks and other birds of prey hunt here.
Snow fields and glacial remnants are scattered across the landscape inviting a climb, pulling you higher.
Elk have already climbed these peaks for the soft spring grasses. Antlered males are off to themselves and the females and newborns are herded up in a distant meadow. Golden mountain avens grow and sway in every field exposed to the wind. Far beneath your position a high mountain lake, a tarn, adds a touch of blue to the yellow-green of the high meadows. Another one, tucked in at the base of a cirque, competes for attention. On every point another secret is revealed.
You don’t just see a place like this; you feel it.

07-12 Transcendence

7-11-08 The North Platte

The North Platte. Early highway into the west. Passing it a moment ago and the constant rolling hills between the mountains that we have followed for days forces the immense size of this country upon your awareness. Leaving Billings headed south we passed through the Bighorn area of gentle grass covered hills. Further to the west, between us and the Yellowstone, were the Bighorn Mountains and still the grasses, days of grasses, months of grasses, as far as one could see. Occasional pines on southern dry slopes reveal little but the cottonwoods in the ravines speak of the near certainty of water.
It’s a dry country but the grasses, cattle and farms do well.
There is a disarming beauty to the landscape. The yellow-green prairie grasses are under a constant cloud covered sky. They are tranquil and inviting. But without some means to cover this ground, survival is doubtful. There is a dry independence to this place. From the hard scrabble little towns that used to have gas stations to the large cattle ranches there is a toughness and confidence here. There has to be. What is here is here, nothing more- the indifference of nature, the land and a confident people cut from the same cloth as the men who opened it.
This country leaves its hand on you.