Alluvial Fan

There are two easily accessible areas at RMNP where you might see Big Horn Sheep -- Sheep Lakes and Alluvial Fan -- both in close proximity to one another.  Sheep sightings have been declining, as they normally do when summer arrives, and we didn't get to see any.  We did ride over to Alluvial Fan to see the cascading waterfall and for the kids to climb all of the boulders.

Alluvial fans are fan-shaped deposits of water-transported material such as sand, gravel, and in our case very large boulders.  This area of RMNP was created on July 15, 1982 when Lawn Lake broke through the dam that had held since the end of the last ice age  Over 29 million gallons of water swept trees and car sized boulders four miles down to the valley floor. 

The kids had a great time climbing up and down the boulders.  It must have worn them out, because as I am writing this about 8:00am, they are still fast asleep.