As of June 5, 2011, Trail Ridge road is still closed. The National Park Service is working hard to complete the clearing of large snow drifts as high as 29 ft according to reports. Typically, Trail Ridge road is open by Memorial Day, and in recent years a few weeks prior to Memorial Day. This year has been anything but typical in the Colorado high country and Rocky Mountain. The Park Service is hoping to have Trail Ridge road open by June 15th at the latest, and hopefully sooner.
Earlier in the week, I was able to catch some dynamic conditions at Rainbow Curve which is the current terminus of Trail Ridge road as of this writing. I had been photographing this particular morning over near Sprague Lake. It had captured a decent sunrise this morning, but many of the clouds present when I arrived had dissipated by sunrise. Up until this point, the real catch that morning at Sprague Lake was a young Moose feeding on the willows along the western shore. Moose are much more common on the east side now then even 10 years ago, but you are still less likely to spot one on the east side. On my way out of Rocky, I could see fog and clouds forming over the Mummy Range and Mt. Ypsilon. I took a quick detour over Trail Ridge road and headed up as far as I could go to Rainbow Curve. I was able to get a handful of shots off before the fog also disappeared and the Mummy Range and Mt. Ypsilon.