Aspen, Ice Caves, Grottoes, and Cascades - Colorado

Aspen Forest

Aspen: a tree, a city, a forest; in any case, a beauty to behold.

The city of Aspen is an alpine jewel set in nature's precious wilderness.  It is a wealthy city where billionaires push around millionaires; it's Beverly Hills on steroids; and it sits in the wild rich Rocky Mountains of Colorado.  Arriving by plane or driving, one discovers the genteel habitat of eggs benedicts, mimosas, and NorthFace-clad hikers and mountain bikers.  It's the gateway to the playground of those who've arrived; or those who simply love nature.

Whether outfitted by REI or Walmart, everyone enjoys venturing past the city and into Mount Massive Wilderness Area in the San Isabel National Forest on the way to Independence Pass.

Magnificent mountains magically morph into an amazing aspen forest on the way to the pass.  First sight of an aspen clump of trees reveals a living organism composed of interdependent living units.  Each tree bolstering the other while searching for sunlight sings a primal leave-rustling melody beckoning to an earlier, perhaps mythical age.  They are tall with greenish white skin - scarcely a bark - and graceful round leaves like swishing earrings in auburn hair.

Within the forest wonders await.  Steep terrain belies a rocky bed where granite stones form crags, caves, and caverns topped by boulder mounds.  Tectonic plates are still forcing bedrock out of the ground and rock gardens of gigantic proportions pop up the mountainside.

Cascade

Rainfall captured at the top cascades down, tumbling, and tunneling while carving hard rock into abstract sculpted stone; some looking remarkably like pock-marked faces in various stages of surprise.

Pocked Rock Face

Natural sculpture gardens filled with reflecting pools and zen reflections capture the imagination.  

Zen Reflection

Granite vessels and fountains randomly created by fickle streams surprise at every turn.

Granite Vessel

Exploring further reveals that hydrology has been busy beneath the surface.  There are rocky grottoes, cave entrances,

Cave Entrance

....and granite ravines, or gullies lead to the most unexpected surprise of all in the warm summer month of August.

Grottoes Ravine

Ice caves, not made of ice, but carved out of solid bedrock and stocked with ice deep underground.  A subterranean pool of melting ice delightfully green with thriving aquatic life greets the unsuspecting spelunker.

Ice Caves Pool

Spring water infiltrating rocky pockets as big as bedrooms freezes in Winter and tunneling endlessly year after year expands space to chamber-size proportions. 

Ice Caves

And always, there is light; playful meandering light overhead, entering deep within crevasses; illuminating, delineating, casting dark shadows over rounded boulders; a beacon, a ray to be drawn to... a hope.

Playful Highlights

Rocky Mountain National Park

Zen-like View

Climbing out of the Colorado desert titanic mountains march North-South in a massive migration spanning eons and stretching from Canada to Mexico.  Meet the Rocky Mountains.

Travelling at maximum speed takes forever to get there.  Driving Eastward at 80 mph behold behemoths reaching for the sky in a slow motion dance highlighted by the sun and underscored by shifting shadows.  Clouds form, gather, and vanish above, around, and in front of the mountains like characters in a play.  The Rockies face the Heavens above and creatures below with indifferent magnificence.

Eventually, climbing up foothills, up the mountain skirt steeply the landscape changes to dense bush, the air thins, and panting, almost gasping for oxygen you end up on the Continental Divide.  The Pacific watershed lies westward, the Atlantic watershed eastward, and each is impossibly far.  At this point in the range the altitude is a mere 9,523 feet above sea level; the summit road reaches an altitude of 12.300 feet with Zen-like views.

Accessing the Rocky Mountain National Park is most convenient from Estes Park, a small alpine city with every sort of accommodation, although the most intimate way to this national treasure is by camping.  Either way, this formidable high-altitude expanse is rewarding, yielding extreme sights.

Alberta Falls

West of Estes Park is Alberta Falls, a robust gushing waterfall within hiking distance from the parking lot.  Sparkling alpine water is a refreshing sight cascading and thundering down granite boulders, delightful to behold.   Climbing to the top and seeing the water tumbling, or staying at trail's end to enjoy the display is certainly worth the effort.

Bear Lake

A strenuous oxygen-deprived two mile hike from the falls delivers a group of alpine lakes the closest of which is Bear Lake, quaint and classic with jutting granite peak backdrops.

Abyss Falls

Intrepid drivers may tackle a one way dirt road steeply climbing from near the park entrance to the summit.  On the way to the top is a hidden gem called Abyss Falls.  This waterfall is continuously carving solid granite into a narrow tubular channel tumbling precipitously into the abyss: a fluid yet steadfast sculpture.

Jagged Moutains

Jagged mountains impress upon all sides on the trek to the top.

Summit - RMNP

Approaching the highest peaks accessible by car is rendered dramatic by rarefied air and endless vistas.
Elevation 12,301feet, more than two miles high is crystal clear, the atmosphere a rugged ambiance.  And, the alpine setting is rich in wildlife.  Nature's bounty is abundantly clear.

Nature's Bounty

Plentiful elk roam gracefully grazing and posing; suddenly sprinting and galloping away; tolerating humans up to a point, bolting when spooked, they're gone.  Here one minute, miles away the next, effortlessly, foraging, drinking melted snow pooled here and there and everywhere conveniently placed in this wildlife playground.  Often, summer thunderstorms turn even the most idyllic hill tops into moody mountains.

Moody Mountain

Fresh air combining with vast vistas fuels the imagination, flaring into ancestral dreams.  And everything is green.  Patches of snow persist well into August highlighting verdant mosses with their complimentary orange lichen.  Alpine views greet you as if smiling.

Alpine View

Crows crackle their craven craw, gliding, soaring, searching: a murder in flux.

Crows Crackle

Marmots scurry in and out of dens stopping to stare and wiggle whiskers: sniffing out the air.

Scurrying Marmot

Distant hawks keen their killing cries while pikas screech high pitched notes ears piercing anew and Elk Bull bugles his mating calls, in rut.

Elk Bull

Suddenly the realization hits that we are like aliens from another planet freshly landed and witnessing a fragile system best left untouched, a prime directive to not interfere: to look and not touch or it will break and shatter like a broken dream.

And yet this is home.  Peace descends like a warm shower.  Little things show off their beauty.  The lichen seems a little redder, the sky a little bluer, smells a tad more pungent, and sounds a whole lot keener; even touching is sharper, describing jagged rock edges and smooth moss textures.  In short, senses are heightened and freedom reigns at one with nature and yourself: atone.