Hare in the Snow

Photo and video by me - snowshoe hare in the fresh Rocky Mountain National Park snow - discovered while snowshoeing in the park yesterday.

and here's a grainy video of some coyotes playing in the park as well:

Photo of the Day

Conditions Permitting - Rocky Mountain National Park Will Conduct Winter Pile Burning Operations. (NPS photo, picture taken by firefighter during operations last year) - this is what those piles of wood were for in my print from last year:

Photo of the Day

taken by Lorna in Rocky Mountain National Park last week

Colorado Wolverine

M56, the juvenile wolverine tagged in Grand Teton National Park near Jackson, Wyo., in April of 2009 and believed to have walked to Colorado soon after, still is ranging in Northern Colorado. Here he eyes a photographer on April 22, 2012 near Guanella Pass. (Cameron Miller, special to The Denver Post - follow link to see more of his work and support this photographer)

This morning's Denver Post has an interesting article about the first wolverine seen in Colorado for 90 years - called M56. According to the article at the Post, only 250 wolverines are estimated to exist in the lower 48 states. There are talks of re-introduction of the species into Colorado - with hold ups from various "shareholders" (skiing, mining, etc). Like many people, I love a good underdog or lone-wolf story - I think that's part of the lure of the West. In 2008 I wrote about a possible wolf in Rocky Mountain National Park and this story of M56 closely relates - both in the rarity of the species in Colorado and the talk of possible re-introduction. For more information, check out the Wolverine Blog.

One of my favorite sounds

We made an impromptu visit to Estes Park yesterday to hear the elk bugling during their fall rut. It has got to be one of the most haunting sounds in the natural world. Listen here or here:

Wild Turkeys

Wild Turkeys in Rocky Mountain National Park

Fern Falls - Photo of the Day

We hiked in the rain up to Fern Falls (pictured) yesterday in Rocky Mountain National Park .

Photo from Today

I took this from Trial Ridge Road in Rocky Mountain National Park this afternoon. It was a cold afternoon up above tree-line.

Update

Possibly the best elk photo I've taken - from last weekend in Estes Park

My work in the "2011 National Contemporary Exhibition" at the Grand Junction Art Center


One of my favorite works in that show - "Telerama" 2010 - transfer print, paper collage, 16in. x 16in. by Lili Francuz

On the way back from Grand Junction the river through the canyon was raging

We also stopped at the Aspen Art Museum where I enjoyed a show of small, dense paintings by Cathy Wilkes - this one is Untitled, 2009. Courtesy of The Artist and Galerie Giti Nourbakhsch, Berlin and the Aspen Art Museum.

Weekend photos

We had a nice time up in the Winter Park/Grand Lake area this weekend. On our travels we spotted bighorn sheep, elk, marmots, mule deer, five moose, a fox and a pelican. Not bad huh?

Here's the fox - running through ditches off of the side of the road outside of Grand Lake.

There were five moose in this small group inside of the Grand Lake side of Rocky Mountain National Park - they were across a field of snow, so most of the photos were taken through my binoculars (thus the vignette).

Hope everyone stopping by "minutiae" had a great weekend too.

Snowshoeing in Rocky Mountain National Park

This afternoon:

Very strong winds at the Loch.

Grand Lake and hints of Autumn

We hiked 8 miles or so in the west part of Rocky Mountain National Park yesterday - by Grand Lake. It was a perfect cool fall day without a cloud in the sky.

Grand Lake (photo by Lorna)

Interesting moss on some of the dead pines (beetle kill) in the park

A pretty bad photo of the bull moose we saw from the road as we left the park. He had his head in the bushes most of the time but we got a good look at him through binoculars.

Estes Park Traffic

Taken Saturday in Estes Park.

On a grander scale

photo taken in Rocky Mountain National Park this last weekend.

Henry David Thoreau -February 2, 1852:

Sir Francis Head says that in America “the moon looks larger” than in Europe. Here, then, more moonshine is to be expected. Perhaps the sun looks larger also. Such are the advantages of the New World. The same writer says, “the heavens of America appear infinitely higher,” “the stars are brighter.” These, too, are encouraging facts, symbolical of the height to which the philosophy and poetry and religion of her inhabitants may one day soar. At length, perchance, the immaterial heaven will appear as much higher to the American mind, and the intimations that star it will appear as much brighter. For I believe that climate does thus react on man, and that there is something in the mountain air that feeds the spirit and inspires. We shall be more imaginative; we shall be clearer, as our sky, bluer, fresher; broader and more comprehensive in our understanding, like our plains; our intellect on a grander scale, like our thunder and lightning, our rivers and our lakes, and mountains and forests. Are not these advantages? Will not man grow to greater perfection intellectually as well as physically under these influences? Or is it unimportant how many foggy days there are in his life?

Wild Neighbors

At our lodging on the edge of Rocky Mountain National Park this weekend we had several local residents over to visit: (in order of appearance)

(he picks his head up 20 seconds in on the video)

This doe was with two others - but this was the better photo.

RMNP

Off to Rocky Mountain National Park for most of the weekend. I'll resume regular posting on Monday.

A Moment

This sunset in the Moraine valley of Rocky Mountain National Park was incredible.

We also saw a mother-moose and her two young but I wasn't able to get a decent photo through the brush. Here's the blurry photo I did get (the third one is coming through the brush at the top of the image, but it is really hard to see);

Photos from the Weekend

Photos from our weekend in Estes Park/Rocky Mountain National Park:

Fern Falls Trail:

Elk in Estes Park lake:

We also had a close encounter with a moose on the trail. Had we been walking just a little faster we might have run right into him coming around the corner on our hike. Whew!

Elk Fest 2009

Elk at Rocky Mountain National Park, photo by Nathan Abels

Today we'll be in Estes Park for our third year in a row of attending Elkfest. One of my all time favorite sounds is the elk bugle - a haunting and beautiful call. Elkfest has come to be our stand-in for Fort Wayne's Johnny Appleseed Festival. The two fests are not related at all except for that they are fall traditions. While the cider, smells and foods Johnny Appleseed are hard to beat - so are the elk bugles in Rocky Mountain National Park this weekend.

Fall All Leaves All Fall

Ed Ruscha, "Fall All Leaves All Fall" (2009) - image from the NYTimes

This is my favorite time of year. We took a short day trip to Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park yesterday to enjoy the beautiful, eerie sounds of elk bugles and the yellow aspen leaves.

Drive-by out-the-window photo by Lorna Cochraneriver reflection photo by Nathan Abels - after Alexander Binder