Each time we visit Rocky Mountain National Park, we travel the Old Fall River Road from it’s junction with the modern Fall River Road, U.S. Highway 34. The road is two-way and paved for the first 1.75 miles, passing Lawn Lake Trailhead, Lawn Lake Alluvial Fan, and the Endovalley Picnic Area. The remaining 9.4 miles is winding, narrow, unpaved and one-way from the picnic area to above treeline at Fall River Pass, following the steep slope of Mount Chapin’s south face to it’s junction with Trail Ridge Road.
Old Fall River Road was built between 1913 and 1920.
The Lawn Lake Alluvial Fan is a particularly interesting recent geologic feature. It was created when flood water and debris rushing down the steep and narrow Roaring River valley from a failed dam at Lawn Lake slowed down when it reached the broader Fall River valley, leaving behind an alluvial fan of debris. When we first saw it over 20 years ago, the large Roaring River gully scoured by the flow and the alluvial fan were still a fairly fresh scar on the land, with little new vegetation. In the ensuing years, the scar has weathered some and vegetation has moved in.
Additional information on the Lawn Lake Dam Failure, July 15, 1982
International Space Station Commander Dan Burbank captured spectacular imagery of Comet Lovejoy as seen from about 240 miles above the Earth’s horizon on Wednesday, Dec. 21.
The Bear Lake area of Rocky Mountain National Park is one of the most popular parts of the park. We’ve hiked several trails in the area, including the 0.6 mile trail around Bear Lake.
The Bear Lake Trail is an easy walk, listed as accessible – available to most people, including those with handicaps. However, the trail is not entirely flat and is more challenging than most accessible trails. The lake is about 9500 feet above sea level.
Bear Lake is at the end of Bear Lake Road, eleven miles from the Beaver Meadows Visitor Center. With several other trails in the Bear Lake area, the parking lot fills early during the summer and weekends. Bear Lake Route shuttle buses run from a large Park & Ride parking area across from Glacier Basin Campground, with stops at other trailheads along the route.
Blog posts from this visit to
Rocky Mountain NationalPark:
A new Norwegian study predicts that the annual mean temperature in Svalbard will drop 3.5°C over the period of 2009 to 2020 and mean winter temperature will drop 6°C. The study is based on solar activity and the duration of solar cycles. While the study is specific to Norway, if this actually occurs, temperatures will also drop significantly in other areas.
Cooling ‘til 2068?
A recent Chinese study of Tibetan tree rings indicates that there is nothing abnormal about the current climate conditions. The research team determined that several different natural cycles – 2-3 years, 100 years, 199 years, 800 years, and 1,324 years – combined to produce the climate history seen in the varying tree ring properties from the Tibetan Plateau.
The study indicate that temperatures have peaked and predicts that they will drop until 2068 AD, rising again after that.
The studies are two of a number of studies that run counter to the anthropogenic global warming theory so prominent in today’s media.
Global warming or global cooling?
If I had a choice, I’d prefer warming.
(I’d also prefer that governments not waste money in futile efforts that aren’t going to make a significant difference. If we’re going to spend money like that, let’s do something worthwhile – like eradicating malaria or making sure more people in the world have clean water, something that would make a real difference instead of lining the pockets of bureaucrats or eco-snobs.)
After our short stay in the Colorado Springs area, we headed mostly north to our next stop, Moraine Campground in Rocky Mountain National Park.
Looking down Fall River Valley from Fall River Pass.
This was our fifth visit to this area – not counting the trip with my grandparents and 17 year old uncle back in 1957 when I was 5 years old.
The drive for the day was about 145 miles. Unfortunately, it was also through the Denver metro area and there wasn’t much of an easy way around that. We would prefer traveling through metropolitan areas on a weekend when the traffic is less, but I had been unable to get reservations at the park campground for the duration we wanted any earlier than September 12, a Monday.
We delayed starting out a little while in an attempt to miss the worst of the traffic.
I was in the left hand lane on US 24 not long after we left when I noticed the driver in the next lane holding up a card trying to get my attention. I don’t remember exactly what it said, but it was basically telling me that I should be driving in the right hand lane. Now I understand people getting upset when people abuse traffic requirement, including the one where slower vehicles are supposed to stay to the right. I was driving a 25 foot motorhome towing a car, so, yes, I was going slower than some others. However, I also had a GPS that was telling me that about a mile down the road I had to make a left turn to get on the freeway and, with the heavy morning traffic, I was in the left hand lane early to make sure I didn’t miss it. The guy made a right turn shortly after that so I wasn’t really delaying him at all. Just a control freak jerk, I guess.
I’m working on the photos and videos from the several days we were in the Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP) area. We were in some locations more than once and I want to group the material from those together, so the RMNP posts won’t necessarily be chronologically sequenced.
We spotted this “cute” car in a parking lot for some popular trails in Rocky Mountain National Park. It’s a Lotus Elise, certainly a nice looking and sporty car and, at around $50,000, is more than we would want to spend on a car.
There was one other “sporty” car that I caught sight of last summer on the 4th of July weekend. As we were coming out of the parking lot of the Lake Village Tourist Information Center in Southern Arkansas, I saw an orange car that was shaped much different than most of the other cars on the road, but didn’t have a chance to get a picture of it. Now, I’m by no means an expert on automobiles and can seldom identify one without the help of the internet. For some reason, though, Lamborghini came to mind, even though I didn’t get a very good look at it.
A couple of hours later, after crossing a small corner, I spotted the same orange color on a car in a rear view mirror. We were on I20 east of Vicksburg, Mississippi, heading for Biloxi. I don’t know if it was the same make and model of the picture on the right (from Wikipedia), but the color was very close to this, if not identical – and, as it passed us, I spotted the logo on the back.
Like I said, I’m no expert on automobiles, but these sure seemed like a couple of hot cars.
After our Pike’s Peak drive, we spent some time looking around the towns of Manitou Springs and Old Colorado City.
Today, the towns are part of the South Central Colorado Urban Area (Wikipedia). Old Colorado City is actually a natural historic district in the city of Colorado Springs that was incorporated into Colorado Springs in 1917. Adjacent to each other, both towns were on one of the direct routes to the Pike’s Peak area gold fields.
Newport State Park, Door County, Wisconsin, September 17, 2008
Newport, northeast of Ellison Bay, is Wisconsin’s only formally designated wilderness park. With 2,373 acres and 11 miles of Lake Michigan shoreline it offers quiet alternatives to bustling Door County. – Park website
The Bear Lake area of Rocky Mountain National Park is one of the most popular parts of the park. We’ve hiked several trails in the area, including the 0.6 mile trail around Bear Lake.
This was our fifth visit to this area – not counting the trip with my grandparents and 17 year old uncle back in 1957 when I was 5 years old.
