Nowhere else is the timberline struggle between the trees and the winds more grotesquely exemplified or its scene more easily accessible to visitors of average climbing ability. The first sight of luxuriant Engelmann spruces creeping close to the ground instead of rising 150 feet or more straight and true as masts arouses keenest interest. Many trees which defy the winter gales grow bent in half circles. Others, starting straight in the shelter of some large rock, bend at right angles where they emerge above. Others which have succeeded in lifting their heads in spite of winds have not succeeded in growing branches in any direction except in the lee of their trunks, and suggest big evergreen dust brushes rather than spruces and firs.
Above timberline the bare mountain masses rise from one to three thousand feet, often in sheer precipices. Covered with snow in autumn, winter, and spring, and plentifully spattered with snow all summer long, the vast, bare granite masses, from which, in fact, the Rocky Mountains got their name, are beautiful beyond description. They are rosy at sunrise and sunset. During fair and sunny days they show all shades of translucent grays and mauves and blues. In some lights they are almost fairylike in their delicacy. But on stormy days they are cold and dark and forbidding, burying their heads in gloomy clouds from which sometimes they emerge covered with snow.
FAUNA AND FLORA
The national park is a sanctuary for wildlife. Animals and birds are protected from hunting. Living trees may not be cut or injured. Flowers may not be picked. The cooperation of visitors is requested, in order that the wildlife of the park may be protected, that the flowers may continue in their present abundance, and that the forests of the park may not suffer injury from fire or other cause.
Animals
The lofty rocks are the natural home of the celebrated Rocky Mountain sheep, or bighorn. This animal is much larger than any domestic sheep. It is powerful and wonderfully agile. When fleeing from enemies these sheep, even the lambs, make remarkable descents down seemingly impossible slopes. They do not land on their curved horns, as many persons declare, but upon their four feet held closely together. Landing on some nearby ledge, which breaks their fall, they immediately plunge downward again to another ledge, and so on till they reach good footing in the valley below. They also ascend slopes surprisingly steep. They are more agile even than the celebrated chamois of the Swiss Alps, and are larger, more powerful, and much handsomer. A flock of a dozen or more mountain sheep making their way along the volcanic flow which constitutes Specimen Mountain in Rocky Mountain National Park is an unforgettable sight.
The beaver, whose dams and other structures, both old and new, found along most streams at middle altitudes, are rarely seen except at night or very early morning. Elk occur in numerous places, and deer which are widely distributed are commonly seen. Coyotes and brown or black bear are occasionally seen, but these, like the mountain lion, bobcat, and small carnivorous animals, are not only rare, but so wary that they are seldom seen by visitors.
Among smaller animals, the most familiar are the marmot or woodchuck, Freemont or pine squirrel, three kinds of chipmunks, and the interesting little cony or pika, which lives among the rocks on high mountains and is more often heard than seen. In all, over 60 species of mammals live in the park.
