8 OUE NATIONAL PARKS. 



tously nearly a mile, and sometimes more than a mile, higher still. 

 Longs Peak, the biggest of them all, rises 14,255 feet above sea level, 

 and most of the other mountains in the snowy range, as it is some- 

 times called, are more than 12,000 feet high; several are nearly as 

 high as Longs Peak. 



AT TIMBEBLINE 



The valleys on both sides of this range and those which penetrate 

 into its recesses are dotted with lovely park-like glades clothed in a 

 profusion of glowing wild flowers and watered with cold streams from 

 the mountain snows and glaciers. Forests of pine and silver-stemmed 

 aspen separate them. Timber line, which is the name given to the 

 limit to which trees can grow up the mountain sides, is more than 

 11,000 feet above sea level, and up to that point the slopes are covered 

 thick and close with spruce and fir, growing very straight and very tall. 



Just at timberline, where the winter temperature and the fierce 

 icy winds make it impossible for trees to grow tall, the spruces lie 

 flat on the ground like vines, and presently give place to low birches 

 which in their turn give place to small piney growths and finally to 

 tough straggling grass, hardy mosses, and tiny Alpine flowers. Grass 

 grows in sheltered spots even on the highest peaks, which is fortunate 

 for the large curve-horned mountain sheep which seek these high 

 open places to escape their special enemies, the mountain lions. 



Even at the highest altitudes gorgeously colored wild flowers grow 

 in glory and profusion in sheltered gorges. Even in late September 

 large and beautiful columbines are found in the lee of protecting 

 masses of snow banks and glaciers. 



Nowhere else are the timber-line struggles between the trees and 

 the winds more grotesquely exemplified and so easily accessible to 

 tourists of average climbing ability. The first sight of luxuriant 

 Engelmann spruces creeping closely upon the ground instead of 

 rising a hundred and fifty 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 shelter of 

 some large rock bend at right angles where they emerge above the 

 rock. Others which have succeeded in lifting their heads in spite of 

 the 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. 



Still others which have fought the winters' gales for years are 

 twisted and gnarled beyond description — like dwarfs and gnomes of 

 an arboreal fairyland. Still others growing in thick groups have 

 found strength in union and form low stunted groves covered with 

 thick roofs of matted branches bent over by the winds and so inter- 

 twined that one can scarcely see daylight overhead — excellent shelter 

 for man or animal overtaken by mountain-top storms. 



