Rocky Mountain Nat'l Park - 2

The big news is that I'm honored and grateful to be a jolly good fellow--a Woods Hole Fellow!   It's coming up fast, so I'm trying to write up everything from my trip out West before I'm deluged with details for more story ideas.  On the road trip, I stopped at two research facilities.  So far, I've completed an article and picture book for one place.  I still want to do two more for the second research stop.  

While in Rocky Mountain National Park, we hiked 4.4 miles to the top of Flattop Mountain (elevation 12,324').  I've never hiked a mountain so high.  I only threw up once--thankfully it was a half mile from the finish.  At the top, the howling wind was incredible.  It wore us right out.

  Tyndall Glacier is visible from the tundra at the top.  While trekking to the summit, we passed a noisy ptarmigan, a beefy yellow-bellied marmot and a whole lot of wildflowers like this blue columbine.