WEGA in the North West United States
May 29th to June 11th 2016
Day 13 - Friday 10th June 2016
This was a day of contrasts. We moved from small town in Granby to urban sophistication in Boulder via majestic mountains in Rocky Mountain National Park. Being a geologist and photographer most of my interest was in the Rockies! As you will see from the photos below!
We were soon climbing after entering the National Park. There are several lay-bys where we stopped for photographs and a look at the metamorphic rocks - remnants of the ancestral Rocky mountains. Details of the geology can be found HERE. We were soon above the tree line and snow banks were very evident.
Starting the ascent into the Rockies along Trail Ridge Road
Panorama looking west from Trail Ridge Road
Here we are just above the tree line looking at Tertiary volcanoes on Proterozoic metamorphic rocks
Panorama from the Gore Range Overlook. This vast region was first explored, the notice board tells us, by Sir St. George Gore, an Irish aristocrat. More about Gore's expedition can be found in a newspaper article HERE. A flavour of what Gore was like can be gauged by the title of the major source for the article - "Speaking Ill of the Dead, Jerks in Montana history."!
At Forest Canyon Overlook. The road we crossed the Rockies is the highest paved through road in the lower 48 States reaching 3,713m (12,183ft.) Here we can see a corrie above the tree line.
Another view from Forest Canyon Overlook.
As we continued along US-40 we had magnificent views of mountain landscape. The weather was mainly blue sky but there were some towering clouds to lend drama to the scene. And reminders of the glaciers of the recent past were evident.
But eventually we began to descend and were back among the trees. We intended to go to Bear Lake but the small car park at the end of the road was full so we retreated back down the valley and had a short walk to Glacier Creek. This was a reminder that the National Parks are home to many footpaths, some of considerable length, and we had scarcely walked very far from the car parks in our traverse of the continent. It would be nice to stay in a park for a few days and do some walking!
We had a brief stop at Moraine Park where we saw a roche moutonnée - a reminder of the one we had seen on Day 2. It was then a long drive to our hotel in Boulder. The drive gave us an opportunity to see the Flatirons - of which more tomorrow!
View from the road to Bear Lake. The car park at the had of the road was full so we had to come back down and find other things to do.
Doug finds something else to do as we near the end of our North West USA trip. On a rock in Glacier Creek.
A bridge across Glacier Creek
A roche moutonnée at Moraine Park
Clouds above the mountains of the eastern part of Rocky Mountain National Park.
WEGA in the North West United States