16. Rocky Mountain National Park
This was my first of the 5 Colorado National parks that I painted! I was sent some photos of Mills lake and thought it was fantastic for a winter scene. It’s always a different kind of adventure when I don’t know too much about a park and get to research.
Established: January 26, 1915 and this park is named properly, Within the park’s boundaries are 77 mountain peaks all over 12,000 feet high. Colorado is known for its high elevation in general but coming from MN where our tallest peak is 2300, I’m blown away! The tallest mountain peak in the park is Longs Peak. Sitting at 14,259 ft. making it the 14th highest peak in all of Colorado but in the climbing world it has the highest fatality rate in the state of Colorado due to exposure, rapid weather changes, and the ease of accessibility of the trail head. So please stay safe out there.
The Rockies are a 3000 Mile Mountain range that crosses through North America running through a few other parks like Yellowstone and Canada’s Banff. Rocky Mountain national park protects a 400 square mile portion of the range. The highest peak along the Rockies is in Colorado but not in the park. The Peak is Mt Elbert and was my first Colorado painting back in my 2019 states series.
Something else I learned in my research is that 30-miles of the Continental Divide Trail runs right through the middle of the park. As one of the park’s biggest attractions, the trail runs along with parts of the actual Great Divide, which is the invisible border from Alaska through all of North America down to the Strait of Magellan at the southern tip or South America. The divide is famous for shaping which way the water flows to the east or the west
Bighorn sheep are the symbol of Rocky Mountain National Park. With roughly 800 bighorn sheep currently residing in the park, you’ll hopefully see one. They are the largest wild sheep as the males can weigh up to 300 pounds. Bighorn and Dall’s sheep, which I talked about in the Denali video, are the only wild sheep in North America.
There is still much I’d like to learn about this park that's the 5th most visited national park so let me know if you’ve been here and what you love like your favorite hikes or views! Till Next time.
