A Sunny Afternoon in Rocky Mountain National Park

Moraine Park. Clouds conceal the mountain peaks.

For the afternoon journey I went to Bear Lake with stops at multiple points along the way. First stop was Moraine Park which is an interesting geological formation caused by a large glacier scooping up a high wall of rock along one side as it made its way down the valley. This is the first area I could see any fire damage. The upper elevations were still invisible in the clouds, but the sun was out in full force down low.

Moraine Park - looking across the meadow at the moraine

Moraine Park - looking at the end of the valley where Bear Lake Road passes through

Moraine Park - further up the valley. The small hill in center of picture is the recessional moraine where the glacier stopped before melting.

Moraine Park - Looks like they saved the trees on the little mound in the middle.

The meadow in Moraine Park obviously got some fire, more so as you get further up the valley. The road is closed past the parking area about a mile before Fern Lake Trailhead. At that point you can see quite a bit of burn scar on both the basin and the slopes. Interesting how you can have completely burned trees in little spots. I am sure the heat coming down the valley from where it was really burning was pretty intense. A lot of the trails through this part of the park are closed at this time.

Moraine Park - definitely some things got a bit crispy up in here

Moraine Park - This is as far as you could go, the parking area just past the Cub Lake trailhead. Another mile or so back in there is the Fern Lake trailhead.

Moraine Park - road closed past the parking area.

Interesting how there can be pockets of completely burned trees here and there.

Back on to Bear Lake Road, looking up the valley of Moraine Park.

This is the moraine from the other side. Both the valley I am in and the valley on the other side (Moraine Park) were filled with glaciers.

I continued up Bear Lake Road to Sprague Lake. There was a swarm of people out with skis and much better winter gear than I was wearing so I decided any walking about was out of the question. With the cloud cover I would not have been able to get decent pictures of the mountain peaks anyway. Pulled off on a few scenic lookouts and wound all the way to the Bear Lake Trailhead parking area. Lots of avid winter hikers out there!

On Bear Lake Road

Even though it is sunny where I was standing, you still could not see the mountain peaks even though they are just past those first ones.

At the higher elevations it was still temperatures in the teens and lots of snow in the air either falling or being whipped around by a stiff wind. I met up with a small herd of deer. Or a herd of small deer. These little guys are tiny! The big ones are like three feet tall.

At a view point on Trail Ridge Road. Gives a little perspective of how the moraine runs down between valleys.

After making my way back down Bear Lake Road, I decided to pay another visit to Horseshoe Park to see if any afternoon eaters had shown up. No luck there, but I ended up with a late afternoon shot with the last rays of the sun lighting up the clouds.

On Fall River Road overlooking Horseshoe Park.

At the West Alluvial Fan trailhead

Still cold and windy

The bridge is on the Alluvial Fan trail.

Looking back at Fall River canyon.

The mountains just have a different look when the weather is like this.

Last image of the day.