"...where the sky is the size of forever and the flowers the size of a millisecond."
~ Ann H. Zwinger & Beatrice E. Willard on alpine tundra, Land Above the Trees
With the above line from the park brochure buzzing in my head, our day starts in the Rocky Mountain National Park... friendly aspens greet us one more time... the left out conifers with forlorn faces... nature's melange of gold and green... a lonely elk wanders in search of a mate... the tourists gather over its delightful bugling... the climb up begins... we leave the lush autumn foliage behind... suddenly trees are no more a part of our world... a reddish baldness paves the snaking roads... and once again the tundra appears... strange, how rugged barrenness can blow away your senses too... a chipmunk enjoys its solitary lunch... on the most scenic and popular byway of the park, the Trail Ridge Road... a drive into the arches and domes of the gigantic clouds... the world below us fades into a crisscross of trees and trails... it feels a lot smaller, at times a little futile too... patches of old snow cling on to the desolate mountains... at last the towering Rockies emerge... more than 12,000 feet above the world, an unusual calm settles on me... I feel free, free as a bird... the roaring silence, the maddening solitude, the overwhelming wilderness... I bring them back all, in pieces and bits... and some physical tokens too, like this Navajo made sand painting and pair of earrings...
