In Rocky Mountains National Park
The Rocky Mountains stretch from Alaska to Mexico and include National parks we have visited: Banff, Jasper, Waterton Lakes, Glacier, Yellowstone and Grand Teton. This long crack is the backbone of North America, and as we follow it we cross several times the Continental divide. The divide it the line that splits water flows. Freshwater makes its way down the mountains and follows a slope leading to the East or the West. In Yellowstone we saw a lake on top of the divide, its waters were thus heading to both sides of the divide. In Rocky Mountains National Park, water either goes through the Missouri or Mississippi River, the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic ocean; or it goes through the Colorado river, the Grand Canyon, the gulf of California and the Pacific ocean. The Colorado River source is here. We saw the mighty river that carved the Grand Canyon at the beginning of the trip, but here it’s only a peaceful stream traveling through meadows.
We climb up high with Sully, up to 3700 meters in the Alpine tundra. Up there we see pikas, marmots and elks. There are no trees in the harsh tundra environment. Fragile Alpine flowers survive low on the floor where temperatures are warmer, and next to rocks (rocks accumulate heat during the day and slowly release it at night). Lower in the subalpine area we see a black bear. Alas our chances to see a grizzly vanished now, it has been hunted to extinction here (the wolf and the rattlesnakes are gone too). The national park highest summit is Longs Peak at 4346m.
