Ptarmigan Peaks

“Ptarmigan Peaks”
The Story:
Sitting quietly under an old pine tree with her spotting scope she gazed at the mountain range before her. My mother’s eyes wander across a long valley formed from two peaks of a long extinct volcano. Shifting her vision to the alpine meadows and heavily grown forests come into view. She looks higher and higher up another mountain peak the aspens and pine trees give way to rock and alpine tundra. Snow and ice are still in abundance though it is late summer. In a corner of a field of ice she sees movement on Ptarmigan Peak. Her heart races as she spots the elk. Calves, cows and bulls all have gathered to escape the heat and bugs at the lower elevation. Soon these majestic animals will move traveling down from their high mountain recluse to hide in the dense forest below.