Alpine Meadows

The ultimate backpacking high — flowers, rock, snow, wind, and wide-open country above treeline.

Alpine Meadows

Ya gotta hike and climb up high, maybe 10 or 12 or 14 thousand feet, and carry on your back whatever you need for a few days, but the rewards are spectacular. Only the grizzlies and marmots live this high. Summer comes and goes in a few short weeks. Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, British Columbia, Peru; it just keeps getting better the more remote you get.

Why I Love the Alpine Zone

I've loved hiking in the alpine zone for as long as I can remember. It first began on the summits of the White Mountains in New Hampshire, especially up near Mount Washington, where the alpine bloom of all the alpine flowers occurs for three or four weeks in late June. There is only a very short period of weather for the flowers to bloom and become fertilized.

Since then, in my hikes out west, especially throughout the Rocky Mountains, I've always tried to time my visits to those few weeks in June, July, or August, depending on the location, when the alpine flowers were in full bloom. Places like Whistler Mountain in Vancouver, Rocky Mountain National Park, and similar places, especially the Tetons, have alpine meadows that are just pure flowers everywhere you look and absolutely incredible hiking.

I've studied many books on the alpine bloom and used to be really into going up there and identifying the ecological habitats of how all those plants grow and survive in the alpine tundra that's covered in snow and frigid cold for about nine or ten months of the year, but somehow they always survive.

I hope I can get back out there again in midsummer and show Kym exactly what I love so much about being out there.

Photos from the Alpine Zone

Each photo is centered and linked to the actual image file so it can be opened full size.

12,000 feet; alpine flowers everywhere!
Alpine flowers everywhere. I’ve spent dozens of nights up in these alpine meadows, and they each have their own special memories.
Headed for the ridge, and hoping the Grizz see me coming early enough to let me pass!
If you are going to see grizzly bear country, this is the kind of place where you stay calm, alert, and very aware of your surroundings.
The lake looks great for a bivy, but up to the ridge first for sunset and dinner!
If you can go ultra-lightweight and bivouac overnight in these special high places, you’re in for a treat you will never forget.
Alpine zone photo 4
Fishing at a 12,000-foot alpine lake in the Beartooth Mountains of Montana, where most of the lake was still frozen in August.