Water in the Rockies

[Terrierman]

We just got back from a trip to Estes Park and RMNP.  What an incredibly beautiful area.  Elk traffic jams daily in Estes.  Trees with branches only on the downwind side.  25 degrees and 50 MPH wind at 12,000 feet.  Yet life abounds, even up there.  Just a completely different world than down here. 

And water.  If there's water available, and they want it someplace else, it happens.  Even if RMNP is in the way.  Huge tunnels take water from the Western Slope to the Front Range, feeding 8 hydro stations and ultimately, the Big Thompson River.  Now to me, that's a heck of a testament to the value of water and the ingenuity of mankind in managing it.

There's a similar deal on the Gunnison with a long tunnel carrying irrigation water from a reservoir in the Black Canyon out into what would otherwise be nearly desert.  The Gunnison tunnel is old, predating modern surveying and boring equipment.  They started at both ends and met nearly perfectly in the middle.

This type of thing will never cease to amaze me.  

This is about 11,000' elevation in RMNP overlooking another 17,000 acres of wilderness alpine tundra.

[ness]

And…there are native cutthroats in that there water!

[nomolites]

The high desert is one of my favorite ecosystems…besides the elk and other critters, the weather just over the divide on the west slope is so very different than the flatlands.  I guess that explains the crazy real estate values…..

Mike

[ness]

4 hours ago, Terrierman said:

Elk traffic jams daily in Estes. 

The elk in Estes are interesting - oftentimes right there in the middle of town. Kinda felt sorry for this guy who got tangled up in some Christmas lights.

 

[Terrierman]

1 minute ago, ness said:

The elk in Estes are interesting - oftentimes right there in the middle of town. Kinda felt sorry for this guy who got tangled up in some Christmas lights.

 

They like to have their calves out on the golf course.  The day we left there was a huge bull taking a siesta on one of the greens close to our hotel.  Not sure what their local rules are for that situation.

[fishinwrench]

33 minutes ago, Terrierman said:

Not sure what their local rules are for that situation.

Play it where it lies !  😄

Like landing an airplane at Lee C Fine airport.  Sure there's 4 deer and 16 turkeys on the runway.....but hey....this plane is low on fuel! 

[Quillback]

3 hours ago, nomolites said:

The high desert is one of my favorite ecosystems…besides the elk and other critters, the weather just over the divide on the west slope is so very different than the flatlands.  I guess that explains the crazy real estate values…..

Mike

Washington state is known for rain, but also has quite a bit of high desert in the central part of the state.  There was some great chukar hunting.  Good trout fishing too, and elk.  

I remember an accident that happened on I-90 not far from where I lived.  Truck ran into a herd of elk that were in the freeway at night, killed something like 10 of them.  

[Terrierman]

13 minutes ago, fishinwrench said:

Play it where it lies !  😄

Like landing an airplane at Lee C Fine airport.  Sure there's 4 deer and 16 turkeys on the runway.....but hey....this plane is low on fuel! 

Lee Fine is a picnic compared to that dinky one in Osage Beach.  Landed there once at night in a twin Beech with a pilot that liked Margaritas.  Once only.

[Quillback]

This may have been the story I remember:

Truck Kills 11 Elk On I-90 -- Ten Cows, Calf Run Into Tractor- Trailer Rig West Of Cle Elum | The Seattle Times

[Terrierman]

This was an everyday thing while we were there.  They do not care about cars and do not hurry.