BACKPACKING ROCKY MOUNTAIN NATIONAL PARK

Check out the full adventure in the film above, or view the photographic narrative below! What is a photographic narrative?

I sat in the resident workroom of my hospital, surrounded by tan drywall and commercial office furniture, listening to the tapping of other residents typing away on patient progress notes. For the larger part of the last few months, my exposure to natural scenery consisted of glances at the snow covered grass under the homogeneously gray wintertime Ohio skies out the windows of hospital rooms. Every morning, I arrived at the hospital before dawn. And by the time I drove home, the sun had tucked away behind the horizon for the night, dashing any hope of views of wide open spaces out my windshield. 

The human mind isn’t designed for this limited variety of stimuli. As discussed more completely in the film accompanying this text, I think our minds are best suited for breadth of exposure, experience, and expertise. So, as I sat in the workroom, I craved something to break up the routine. My mind wanted to be exposed to something totally different, and completely new. 

I had recently scheduled a backpacking trip to the Grand Canyon, but that was still several months away. So, with another week of vacation that I needed to use or lose, I decided to schedule another trip in the great outdoors. And whereas trekking through the Grand Canyon would put me in the warmth of the desert, I wanted to experience the true character of the wintertime mountains on my second trip. After some deliberation, we decided to explore Rocky Mountain National Park. 

Our adventure would consist of three days and two nights in the Wild Basin area, hiking snow-covered trails to reach Thunder Lake. The frigid temperatures meant that we’d have this section of the park all to ourselves, experiencing the true majesty of the snow-capped Rockies and surrounding backcountry in perfect isolation.