Rocky Mountain National Park - Moraine Park
Moraine Park
Moraine Park is located on the east side of RMNP, and is at an elevation of 8,160 feet. The area was formed as part of the Pinedale glaciation that occurred some 30,000 years ago. Ice that was part of the 13 mile long Thompson glacier, carved out the meadow.
Morning Light
A cold winter morning after a brief snowfall, was the host of my favorite sunrise in the park to date. I got several good pictures on this morning. The skies were a perfect pink color, and the snow on the ground started to absorb the color before the sun came over the horizon.
Moraine Alpenglow
This is one of my favorite panoramic images I’ve ever captured. I captured this photo the same morning as Morning Light above. I took this just as the sun was starting to peak above the horizon, with a soft pink Alpenglow shining on Stones Peak. The clouds from the extreme cold were hugging the mountains, and added a bit of mystery.
Moraine Moonset
Another picture from that fabulous sunrise. For this I took a larger field of view, because I wanted to capture the full moon setting over Beaver Mountain. It is a bit hard to tell from this photo, but if you zoom in you can see how the East Troublesome fire burned through the valley after it jumped the continental divide at Mount Wuh. The snow restores a bit of normalcy to the scene, as it covers the burn scars in the meadow.
