allett Peak, and hunts for
arctic flowerets on the way. But one may also accomplish the purpose in
Loch Vale by climbing all the way to Sky Pond, at the very foot of steep
little Taylor Glacier, or by ascending Glacier Gorge to its head, or by
climbing the Twin Sisters, or Longs Peak as far as Boulder Field, or up
the St. Vrain valley to the top of Meadow Mountain, or Mount Copeland.

All of these ascents are made by fair trails, and all display the
fascinating spectacle of timber-line, which in Rocky Mountain National
Park, I believe, attains its most satisfying popular expression; by
which I mean that here the panorama of the everlasting struggle between
the ambitious climbing forests and the winter gales of the summits seems
to be condensed and summarized, to borrow a figure from the textbooks,
as I have not happened to find it elsewhere. Following up some sheltered
forested ravine to its head, we swing out upon the wind-swept slopes
leading straight to the summit. Snow patches increase in size and number
as the conifers thin and shrink. Presently the trees bend eastward,
permanently mis-shaped by the icy winter blasts. Presently they curve in
semi-circles, or rise bravely in the lee of some great rock, to bend at
right angles from its top. Here and there are full-grown trees growing
prostrate, like a rug, upon the ground.

Close to the summit trees shrink to the size of shrubs, but some of
these have heavy trunks a few feet high, and doubtless have attained
their fulness of development. Gradually they thin and disappear, giving
place to wiry, powerful, deciduous shrubs, and these in turn to growths
still smaller. There are forests of willows just above Rocky Mountain's
timber-line, two or three inches tall, and many acres in extent.

From the Front Range, well in the south of the park, a spur of toothed
granite peaks springs two miles eastward to the monarch of the park,
Longs Peak. It is this position in advance of the range, as much as the
advantage of its 14,255 feet of altitude, which enables this famous
mountain to become the climax of every east-side view.

Longs Peak has a remarkable personality. It is an architectural
creation, a solid granite temple, strongly buttressed upon four sides.
From every point of view it is profoundly different, but always
consistent and recognizable. Seen from the east, it is supported on
either side by mountains of majesty. Joined with it on the north, Mount
Lady Washington r