Images of Rocky Mountain National Park – Northwestern Colorado, taken in June 2016.

Unless you’ve been to arctic Alaska, Canada or Siberia you have never experienced anything like the landscape in Rocky Mountain National Park. At altitude you are driving through the tundra which is a Russian word meaning “land of no trees”. Here the winds often exceed 100 miles an hour and temperatures are below freezing for at least five months each year. Still, it is an incredibly beautiful scene, especially if you are as lucky as I was to see it under clear blue skies.

This is the land where the Colorado River is born, here it is merely a stream fed by snowmelt but downstream it is the force that helps create Canyonlands and the Grand Canyon! From the great river to the top of its tallest peaks this park is full of life; valleys of pines, aspens and spruce give way to alpine plants that hug the tundra to survive the harsh weather high up in the mountains. Animals too are plentiful, most migrate to the lower altitudes in the winter and return to graze in the summer; elk, bighorn sheep, moose and deer are the largest wildlife in the park. The elk are everywhere but it takes a little luck to find some of the others…as I outline in my “Rocky Mountain National Park - Wildlife” gallery.

Here I document the landscapes of the park, the magnificent open spaces, rugged mountaintops, desolate alpine tundra and the Trail Ridge Road that connects it all. There are spectacular vistas around every turn in Rocky Mountain National Park.