Colorado Clouds

It's a given that the mountains of Western Colorado are captivating, but what has been most unexpectedly captivating are the clouds. Most mornings, the weather is so clear it makes you forget you even know what a cloud is. Yet by the afternoon, the clouds have materialized, the thunderstorms move in, and it seems as if it had never been sunny in the first place.

Last Saturday, I drove to Rocky Mountain National Park and spent some time above the treeline/timberline. Although I stopped to take pictures of the awesome vistas and valleys, I kept peering up at the sky to watch the clouds form and converge -- like gravity pulling together particples in a nebula.

I tried to capture the sky with my camera, but of course failed miserably. You can see my attempts in the slide show below. You can also see all the CU undergrads lined up beneath storm clouds -- in yellow shirts that matched the marigolds -- waiting to catch the shuttle to the CU/CSU rivalry football game.