Panoramas

 

These are the greens and blues of summer in the Rockies, a perfect palette for the cool air of higher elevations. The scene is a small bay at the edge of Trappers Lake, located in NW Colorado. The lake lies within the Flat Tops Wilderness Area, and is notable for being the first U.S. National Forest property ever to be set aside as wilderness--way back in 1920, 44 years before Congress passed the Wilderness Act. The large formation at right is known as The Amphitheater, typical of the area and formed by erosion along the edges of a high, circular plateau. This process has left a landscape of sheer walls punctuated by large formations standing alone, with - you guessed it - flat tops.