Colorado - Rocky Mountain National Park: View from Rock Cut by wallyg

The Tundra Communities Trail, beginning near <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/wallyg/5024064985/">Rock Cut</a> along Trail Ridge Road, offers panoramic scenery and close-up views of alpine flowers. Exhibits along the half-mile trail identify tundra plants and animals and how they have adapted to the cold, desert like conditions. In the tundra, a Russian word for &quot;land of no trees&quot;, winds often exceed 100 miles per hour and temperatures remain below freezing for at least five months each year. Given the harsh climate, the alpine tundra is a supremely fragile ecosystem, easily damaged and slow to recover.