Dawn on Trail Ridge Road

Screenshot from Alpine Visitor Center webcam, Dec. 20, 2016.
Screenshot from Alpine Visitor Center webcam, Dec. 20, 2016. Click for current view.

Screenshots from webcams probably don’t count as photography, but I thought this morning’s sunrise as seen from the Alpine Visitor Center (at 11,796 ft. in Rocky Mountain National Park) was especially lovely. We’ve had several days of bitter cold (0°F, -17°C temps) with lots of snow (9″ here in Thornton, Colo., and 2-3 feet or more in the mountains). But we popped back up into the forties with sunshine yesterday and have more of the same today, so no complaints here.

By the way, winter doesn’t officially start until tomorrow morning.

By March, the Visitor Center where the webcam is located will look like this:

screen-shot-2016-12-21-at-12-07-19-am
Photo by Park Ranger Mike E. on March 8, 2014. The webcam is on the far side of the middle buidling, looking down the valley.

10 thoughts on “Dawn on Trail Ridge Road

    1. Well, whatever you call it, I thought it was pretty. And kind of fun because the road up there is closed in the winter, so without the webcam only the most intrepid skiers or snowshoers would see this.

  1. Speaking of tomorrow,; and I’m already there, the Earth stops it’s rotation, my tomorrow the 22nd, which signifies our summer solstice, and the first day of summer. However the weather we’ve been having over the past couple of weeks, one could quite easily have believed we were on the planet Mercury.

    To make things easy for the thick headed trump types, we actually start our summer on the 1st December, we don’t wait.
    :bear: 11:33 hours Wednesday 21st December 2016. 🙂

    1. No one is better situated to confuse me than you! Your seasons are backwards, your time and even your day are different (and you cite military time to boot), you’re on the metric system, you drive on the wrong side of the road, etc. And I know you enjoy it!

      1. Just as an aside PT, if ever you meet up with one of those clowns, carrying a sign, saying the world ends tomorrow; you can assure then that it didn’t as you have a chum, who is already there. XD

    1. The top photo is from a webcam. It can be sharp, misty, or obliterated completely, depending on the weather. The bottom photo is an actual photo that a ranger on location shot.

... and that's my two cents