Tundra Travails EarthCache
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Rocky Mountain National Park is located west of Estes Park and north and east of Grand Lake. This is a fee area of the National Park Service, and costs $30 per vehicle. This fee is covered in the Rocky Mountain National Park Annual Pass, the Rocky Mountain National Park/Arapaho National Recreation Area Annual Pass, and the America the Beautiful Pass. Please see the following website (visit link) for the entire fee schedule. The park is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Road and Trail Conditions and Closures can be found at: (visit link) Recorded information for the condition of Trail Ridge Road can be found by calling (970) 586-1222. Please remember that all geologic features within the borders of Rocky Mountain National Park are protected by law, as are all natural and historic features. Please do not disturb, damage, or remove any rocks, plants, or animals.
Parking for this EarthCache is found at a small pull off on the west side of the road at this point.
From a distance, the tundra may look uniform and smooth, but close up, it looks quite different. Rock streams, rock glaciers, and solifluction terraces are some of the resulting land forms caused by the freeze-thaw action on tundra.
To the west of the road, you will see many rocks on the surface of the ground. These have been pushed up by freeze/thaw cycles over thousands of years. They may collect in streams that slowly move downhill, or may form in rings or piles on the surface. This is called Patterned Ground.
Solifluction terraces can also be seen close by to the west, or a little further away to the north on the south facing slope of Sundance Mountain. These terraces form when the freezing and thawing of the ground causes the soil to move downhill over thousands of years. During the summer months, the top layers of soil thaw and become saturated. This wet soil slowly slides over the icy subsoil, which has remained frozen underneath.
To log this EarthCache, send me an email with the answers to these questions:
1.) What do you think causes the difference between whether patterned ground will form a rock stream or rings?
2.) Count how many primary terraces you see on the south side of Sundance Mountain.
3.) Would you expect the north-facing slope of a mountain to show the same amount of freeze-thaw effects as the south facing slope? Why or why not.
Please consider posting photos of yourself, or the local geology, when you log this EarthCache. Photos can be an additional rewarding part of your journey, but posting them is not a requirement for logging this EarthCache, and is strictly optional.
The above information was compiled from the following sources:
2004. Rocky Mountain National Park. In Harris, A.G. et al., editors. Geology of National Parks, Sixth Ed. P. 337-356. Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company.
Cole, J.C., and Braddock, W.A. 2009. Geologic map of the Estes Park 30’ x 60’ quadrangle, north-central Colorado: U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Map 3039, 1 sheet, scale 1:100,000, 1 pamphlet, 56 p.
Colorado Geological Survey. 2003. Messages in Stone. Matthews et al., editors. Denver, Colorado.
Raup, O.P. 2005. Geology Along Trail Ridge Road. A Self-Guided Tour for Motorists. Estes Park, Colorado: Rocky Mountain Nature Association.
Rocky Mountain National Park. Online at: (visit link)
Rocky Mountain National Park was most helpful in the background discussion, aid in the choosing of sites, and review of this EarthCache. My thanks to the Park for allowing the placement of this EarthCache!
Additional Hints
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