National Parks-Rocky Mountain Nat. Park Colorado

We stayed at Rocky Mountain National Park from June 8th till June 11th.
The first day June 8th we picked up the driving party from Denver International Airport and then drove to and set up our camp.

View of  the Rocky Mountains from our campsite.

Photo Credit: Erin Maguire

The second day, June 9th we went to the National Renweable Lab in Golden, Colorado and we had a discusson from the Western Resource Advocates at a library outside Boulder, Colorado ( These discussions are found under the Renewable Energy section of blog). We came back to our campsite that afternoon and saw that all our tents had been blown over from the wind. That night I stayed awake in my tent as the wind hollowed and the rain poured down. I swore the tent was going to collapse over me. There are downsides to camping in the valley of beautiful mountains- sometimes the weather gets a little intense.

The third day, June 10th, we wanted to go on a hike near Bear Lake with an elavation over 9,000 feet but there was still 2 feet of snow on the ground and its June! We had to settle for a hike around  Fern Lake which was about a 7 mile hike. It wasn't really settling though because Fern Lake was a hike complete wiht huge boulders, spectacular views of the Rocky Mountains, babbling brooks and two waterfalls-one at which we had lunch at.

Erin on the trail near one of the babbling brooks of Fern Lake.

Photo Credit: Erin of course =)

Waterfall we had lunch at.

Photo Credit: Erin Maguire

Over the course of the day, we discussed some history and environmental issues surrounding  Rocky Mountain National Park and  also spoke about some endangered species in Colorado. Our speaker was Partick Hossay, a professor at Stockton, who came along on the trip to help Tait with discussons on wildlife and ecology.

History:
Estes Park, Colorado wanted to keep the Rocky Mountains north of their town pristine and protected plus they wanted a place to hunt and fish. Since its creation the park has had a battle between conservation and recreation.

Environmental Issues:
Inside the park there is no real tree biodiversity. There are too many elk in the park and they eat at the Aspen trees- you can see now that sections of the Aspen trees are now fenced off. There needs to be a fire within the park to reduce the density of trees and  the pines need fire to have their seeds open up and germinate. The pine borrowing beetle is also destroying the trees in the park. Look at the mountains and you see purple trees- those are actually dead trees. Do you still think the mountain is beautiful even if all the pine trees are dying?

Dying pines of the Rocky Mountians.

Photo Credit: Erin Maguire

Endangered Species:
The resorts in Vail, Colorado wanted to release Canada Lynx in mountains near their resort. There were stable numbers of the Canada Lynx in Canada and Alaska but not in the Rockies. 2011 is the first year of high kitten rate for the Lynx.

The wolverine not as well known as the lynx was also released near the resorts. They live in very high parts of the mountians. The extreme sports like skiing/snowboarding after being dropped by helicopter disturbs wolveirne habitat. The wolverine was taken off the endangered species list becasue there are just to hard to tract-we think there are three to five hundred left in the Rockies.

                                       Picture of wolverine.                                Picture of Canada lynx.

On the fourth day, June 11th, we packed up camp and made our way out of Rocky Mountain National Park along Trail Ridge Road- the highest road in America; it is over 11,000 feet above sea level. We were on our way to Utah to Flaming Gorge Recreation Area (within the section concerned with Water Issues of the West).

Both Pictures of the terrain of Trail Ridge Road.

Photo Credit: Erin Maguire

On our way out of the park on June 11th we also stopped at Grand Lake in Colorado. It is the deepest and largest natural lake  in Colorado-it was formed by a glacier and is over 300 feet deep.

Grand Lake, Colorado.

Photo Credit: Erin Maguire