Rocky Mountain National Park 2002 trip journal

	Rocky Mountain National Park, June 2002 my artist residency - grab a cuppa and enjoy...
	First, to set the stage...this was my first artist residency. Also, I'd never spent any time in "Rocky" before, and I was in for a HUGE treat. How it works: Rocky Mountain National Park (hereinafter denoted as "Rocky" or "RMNP") juries from a long list of applicants to select the 6 that will be the Artists in Residence (AiR) each year. Each AiR has a two-week stay in the park and must give two public presentations while staying there. (I enjoyed the presentations hugely, and had packed houses during my talks). Each AiR must also donate to the park one work of art resulting from his or her stay Other than that, we have the run of the park and the tolerance of the rangers Enough preamble - on to some of the highlights in slides and paintings.
	The coolest part: this incredible cabin in the heart of the Moraine Park area that Rocky provides to its AiRs! The cabin was built in the late 1800s and is mostly a big living/dining area with a giant window wall looking at the mountains, and this most awesome porch for sitting and enjoying the gazillion-dollar views. There was a guestbook in which previous AiRs had written of their stays. All had thoroughly enjoyed themselves, and all commented on the necessity of "porch time".	Walking up the trail to 'our' cabin in RMNP
	Our first evening there, as we were unloading our truck into the cabin and getting settled in, a hummingbird flew into the living room and promptly began beating himself against the west window. Fortunately, I was able to rescue him with the use of a kitchen towel and he seemed none the worse for wear. We also shared the run of the porch, and occasionally the living room, with some fearless ground squirrels who clearly felt that anything we had to eat, such as a plate of cheese and crackers on a table on the porch, was also theirs for the taking. One bold fellow attempted to access the tabletop by climbing the rungs of our chairs. He couldn't get a grip on the slick table surface, however, and was tumped unceremoniously onto his rump. Then he acted like "yeah, I meant to do that" and sauntered off. I was in hysterics of laughter.
	A couple things about Rocky (obvious from this photo): The landscapes were spectactular, breathtaking, huge, awesome, and obviously indescribable. We love Yellowstone and go there often, but it doesn't begin to compare to Rocky for scenery. The elk were quite abundant, and this big guy was hanging with some other velvet homeboys about a hundred yards from our cabin. We had the first AiR slot at the beginning of June, and we had every weather imaginable: rain, snow, ice, hail, sun, thunderstorms...it was wild, and wildly beautiful. Trail Ridge Road, which crosses the park above treeline at 12,000 feet, was always a treat to drive for the scenics. Not only that, there were a couple of great places to get both marmots and pikas; I'd never had any luck photographing the latter before, but sure did this time.	Just another crummy view of our 'front yard'
	A pika (yes, they're very cute)	Yellow-bellied marmot, just hangin' out
		"Cat Fight" - elk
	*"Cat Fight"* depicts something you'll see if you watch any given elk herd long enough. Sooner or later, two of the elk will get annoyed with each other and do this nose-in-the-air thing, which is usually followed by a standing-on-the-hind-legs thing. They'll remain in a rearing position for some seconds, apparently trying to see who can get whose nose up the highest. Damned if I can ever figure out what causes these little tiffs, but I find them highly entertaining to watch. By the way, the behavior isn't restricted to cow elk, but since it was two girls in this scene, I had to use this title. And that rimlight gave me such an excuse to use hot cadmium colors on the outlines!
	Speaking of elk...one of the most moving scenes we witnessed was that of a cow elk whose day-old calf had been taken by coyotes (one of the guilty party shown yawning here). She tried to run them off, but the calf was long gone. I felt for her, but I also knew the coyotes needed to eat...and if anything, RMNP has a surfeit of elk (they could use a good wolf pack in that park).
	Yearling mountain goat kids - Mt Evans	"Now What?"
	During our stay in Rocky, we took a side jaunt off to Mount Evans, one of the highest peaks you can drive to in the U.S. (it's over 14,000 feet). We found a small band of mountain goats at the top - exactly as I'd hoped. These two yearling kids were hopping up and down the rockpiles with complete abandon, while I was gasping for air just walking around. I shot a great many rolls of film that day, and this is just the first of what will be many paintings from that excursion.
	Reflecting mooses	Moose yawn - yearling bull
	On the west side of the park - the snowy side of the Continental Divide, which runs through the spine of Rocky - is Kawuneeche Valley. Lots of wet areas, and lots of moose. Of the 30-some moose in Kawuneeche, we saw at least 6 in just one morning - including this cow with 3-week-old calves, and several of these yearling bulls with tiny little thumb-size antler buds. I have no doubt that the cow and calves will result in at least one painting.
	Magpie on a stump (The Thinker?)	"Brass"
	I don't do many birds, but boy, I love those colorful corvids - magpies and jays. Actually, I love all the corvids, including crows and ravens, just for their sheer intelligence and panache. Magpies have the latter quality in spades, and I had great fun running wild with color on this beautiful bird. I could go on, but in the interest of Internet bandwidth, I'll stop for now. I hope this journal has been as much fun for you to read as it has been for me to write. The only bad part about the Artist Residency was that it ended. We had a priceless and memorable stay there, and my sincere thanks go to the National Park Service and particularly Jean Muenschrath, the organizer of the program, for making this opportunity available.

	Velvet crown at sunset