RMNP: December 2014, Part II

Click here for Part I.

As I headed from the meadows to the mountains on my Monday visit to Rocky Mountain National Park, the impact of the clouds, winds, and snow on the scenery and on my comfort increased.

The view from Many Parks Curve was striking, with the peaks on the opposite side of the moraine obscured by the clouds and snow highlighting the ground.

The sun shone faintly through the cloud cover, which only served to make already bleak scenes seem even bleaker.

I love how there was just enough of the water flowing into Sprague Lake still uncovered by ice and snow to provide a dim reflection of the pale sun.

High winds made conditions at the lake rough.  I tried to capture the snow blowing across the icy surface, but don't think I quite succeeded in conveying what it actually felt like.  I ended up not even walking all the way around so I didn't have to go face-first into that wind.

I had hopes that Alberta Falls would still have some visible flowing water as well, so I high-tailed it there as sunset approached.  I covered the 9/10 of a mile from the trailhead through the snow in well under 20 minutes, only to see that they were already completely covered.  Oh, well.

Honestly, I didn't see a lot of what I'd hoped to on this trip -- little wildlife, no Alberta Falls, and no sunset.  But that just made me appreciate little things like this snow-covered bridge that much more.  Sometimes beauty smacks you in the face.  Sometimes you have to look a little harder to find it.  In either event, it's always worth the effort.