I can’t believe it but the end of July has already arrived. Summer in Rocky Mountain National Park typically flies by at light speed but this summer seems to have set a new speed record.
I’ll chalk it up to cool weather this spring that just wouldn’t yield to summer along with the fact that I’ve been spending lots of time in the field photographing Rocky Mountain National Park both on my own as well as with lots of great photography tour clients who have been lucky to enjoy lots of beautiful sunrises on the east side of the park.
The conditions right now in Rocky Mountain National Park are really hitting full stride. While there are still a few snowfields to melt in elevations over 11,000 ft, most of the high meadows have now greened up and wildflowers (although late) are really starting to bloom.
It’s going to be interesting this year to not only see if in some areas of RMNP wildflowers just don’t bloom at all because of our late spring, along with how long wildflowers linger on this year right into fall color season in Rocky in mid to late September. It’s been such a strange year we might have fall colors and wildflower season dovetailing right into one another.
Not to get to far ahead of ourselves, conditions in Rocky Mountain National Park are just plain awesome right now. Streams have settled down from the spring runoff but area still brimming with water. Meadows are green, and wildflowers on the alpine tundra along with wildflowers in the mid elevations are still going strong. Lakes, ponds and tarns look great and sunrise conditions have really been cooperating this year.
As we move from July into August in Rocky, it’s certainly a great time to get out and take advantage of the late summer conditions that are just rounding into mid season summer form.