Sunday, December 22, 2013

Merry (early) Christmas!

Hey y'all!
It's almost Christmas. I'm sure you've already figured that out, considering it is the 22nd. Maybe you don't celebrate Christmas. That's okay! Happy (insert holiday here)! Christmas season is one of my favorite times of the year. It's biting cold, with a glittering layer of fresh snow on the ground. The blue sky peeking through the thick winter clouds, showering the earth with it's warmth. I had the pleasure to drive up to Estes Park early in the winter and got to see a beautiful foggy snowfall.
As we first drove into the National Park, this is what we saw

We started up the drive to Bear Lake just as the snow started to fall

Bear Lake had nearly completely frozen over

Nearly the same area as the first photo above. The fog lifted a little as the snow progressed over the Rockies

On the road to the Alluvial Fan. The road was clear, but the sky had started to fill with fog and it had just begun to snow. The Alluvial Fan was closed due to flooding that had occurred earlier in the year.

These photos are the epitome of the Christmas holiday season. The snow washes out all of the bad memories of the year and replaces them with fresh, new impressions of the season. It gives a new feeling to the earth, to see the world covered in a white layer of pure beauty. While the plants have either died or hibernated for the season, the world has moved on, clearing space for the precipitation that plans to come in and take over for the winter.