After camping near Denver, we crossed the mountains from East to West through the Rocky Mountain National Park. I am absolutely positive that I have not gone up to such high elevation before.
Such lovely valleys.
A black-billed magpie! We don’t have them out East.
Steller’s jay! I was especially thrilled to see one – I love blue plumage. Did you know, by the way, that blue color in birds is not a pigment but the way their feather structure reflects light? Note next time how every blue-colored bird you see is actually iridescent in the sun.
Steller’s jay above, as well as its Eastern cousin, the blue jay, are actually in the same family as magpies and crows. You know how they have these raspy cries? Very much the crow-family sound.
Gosh, I loved the coolness.
I just didn’t like the lack of air.
Boo-hoo, as my daugther likes to say.
Gray jay, I believe! I loved seeing the Western bird species.
Chipmunk! The world is filled with small wonders everywhere. Here’s how this blogger travels: I don’t go to cities or resorts and take pictures of glorious cupcake stores or city views. I much prefer back country and wildlife.
Something about the contrast of scale here… macrocosm and microcosm.
This is getting reaaaaly high now.
Oh, they’ve never seen the spring hit the Great Divide…
Eso es. The spring on the Great Divide.
Where did the mountains go? Looks like we are on the flatland again, doesn’t it? Wrong! We are at the very top of the mountain, way above the tree line.
Trees again – we are coming down now. TWILIGHT!!!!!!!!!!
The wildlife in those parks and campgrounds is entirely unphased by humans. A whitetail in our parts would never stand grazing in front of you like that. You can tell this dude evolved without guns.
This is a bull elk in velvet.
And there it is! The Divide.
And here is the campground where we stayed that night – incredibly beautiful, but I hated how there wasn’t enough air and how cold it got there at night.
Up next: Colorado Springs!
