by Karen on September 6, 2009
in quilts
More from the mountains. Most of these photos I believe are from the Trail Ridge Road going across the mountain.
Trail Ridge Road close to the top - next to a pull out where you can take photo's
a mountain view
Clarks Nutcracker - very common bird in this area
sun rise over the mountains
a mountain valley full of elk- we are looking down a long way here
Alpine Visitor Center
the visitor center has a reinforced roof because of the many feet of snow that fall during the winter. The tall wooden poles all around show where the building is when they make it to the top to plow it all out!
The Alpine trail from the visitor center, this trail goes up to about 12,100 feet elevation. It is windy as can be up here and I really mean windy!! and cold, lot of people bring winter jackets, gloves & hats to wear while making the walk up to the top. The air is so thin it is hard to hurry because you have to concentrate on breathing! We layered and had shirt, long sleeve shirt, sweater - and I wish I had brought my winter jacket along! I did have my winter gloves 
a beautiful elk
There are so many photos to share and where to start?
this is the dirt road that is called Fall River Road, it is the old highway that went to the top and over to the western side of the mountain. Now it is open going one way for 9 miles and ends at the visitor center at the top of the mountain in the Alpine area.
Throughout the photos in the alpine area and actually along this whole road you will see tall poles marking the side of the highway – these are snow poles – when they come up here in May they need to know where the road is to plow it, it normally takes them a month at least to plow the whole road – the black top highway Trail Ridge Road which you will see in other photos is about 29 miles long I believe.
Numerous pull outs are on this road so you can stop and take photos looking down the way you came and see others on their way up the road
a mountain valley view
this elk had just crossed the road in front of us and I managed to get a photo before he went into the woods while Mike was driving - we were barely 10 feet away from him - but safely in the car!
mountain lake - as the snow is melting this pretty lake is formed - it looked so clear and was turquoise in color
some of the mountains - I love these peaks
