Rocky Mountains - water

The Rocky Mountains aren’t all barren tundra. There is plenty of water in the lower sections of the park. With so many mountains, and so much rain and snow, it all has to go somewhere. Actually, from this point, it goes in a couple of different directions. This is Milner Pass, a point on the Continental Divide, which separates water flow towards the Atlantic Ocean on one side or the Pacific Ocean on the other side.



Here I stood, astride the nation, with one foot on each side of the continent’s water flow. With what I hope is an uncharacteristic lack of class, it occurred to me that if I were to pee on this spot … I think you get the gist. Now that I’m trapped in a pee story and unable to get out, the best I can hope is to distract you by mentioning the delightfully named Never Summer Mountains that form part of the Continental Divide.



On the South Western outskirts of the park I took a short hike up to a pretty little waterfall called Adams Falls.





I sat in this spot for a while with a notebook, hoping to think deep thoughts, or at least come up with something worth writing on the blog. The page in the notebook is still blank, but the water tinkled gently, a big beetle made his slow way across the rock beside me and bird calls echoed in the last hours of the afternoon.



Nearby Grand Lake is surrounded by mountains, giant glacial troughs and the town of Grand Lake. It is Colorado’s largest natural lake. Development along its shoreline has gone into hyper drive and I saw more cranes of the construction variety than any kind of water bird. It’s a shame, because from the right angle, standing on one leg and with one eye closed, it’s still possible to see how this lake must have looked when the historic Grand Lake Lodge sat alone on the mountain slope overlooking Grand and Shadow Mountain Lakes.