It’s been raining in Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park since Monday and it’s finally taking its toll on the community. Many businesses and homes are flooded and many have been evacuated. Downtown is flooded from the confluence of the Big Thompson River and Fall Rivers through the main street. Hopefully the sandbags are holding the water from getting inside their doors.
The Big Thompson River is really flooding over by Fun City and Piccadilly Square. The first photograph is of the bridges and underwater amusements at Fun City. The second photograph is of the meadow and parking lot by the dam. The huge dam in the distance has 5 of its flood gates open.
All of the roads into and out of Estes Park, including Highway 34, Highway 36 and Route 7 are closed because of washouts and rock slides.
Hopefully the rain will stop soon and it will dry up. It’s rained enough!!
It’s fun to watch the yellow Stonecrop start to bloom in Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park. Its flower look like little stars about 1 cm across and can be found in dry, stony, open sites from the plains to the alpine.
The first photograph shows a Stonecrop about to bloom and the second photograph shows the Stonecrop in full bloom. In a couple of weeks these yellow Stonecrop will change into a reddish color. They are just beautiful.
You can see and hear signs of the elk rut starting to begin in Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park. Every once in a while you can hear one of those big Bull Elk bugling away or see him with his harem.
I saw this 7-Point Bull Elk on the golf course near Lake Estes with his harem of a few cows. There were no other Bull Elks around to bother them, so they were pretty tame.
Beautiful, don’t you think, with the mountains as the background?
There are so many different kinds of Gentian wildflowers that I’ve seen out here in Rocky Mountain National Park….Blue Mountain Gentian, Pleated Gentian, Arctic Gentian and Northern Gentian. I never knew there were so many!
I saw this little Northern Gentian up on the tundra a couple of weeks ago. It was so pretty and delicate. They grow to about 5-6″ tall up there at the higher elevations and stand very erect, nestled in the grasses. The barrel-shaped flowers are upright and about 1″ long with 4-5 flaring, pointed lobes.
Pretty, don’t you think? Have you ever seen one?
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