Glacial Land Forms in Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado

Abstract

Within each of the major valleys east of the Continental Divide in Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado, similar associations of glacial land forms are repeated. The character and pattern of distribution of moraines, terrace remnants of valley trains, and ice-eroded upper-valley forms are presented as evidence that glaciers occupied these valleys during at least three stages. All observed glacial land forms lie within well-developed valleys, and no evidence was found that glaciers had extended as far east as Estes Park. Nor was any evidence found of a very early and extensive glaciation corresponding to the Prairie Divide² and Tungsten Mountain (pre-Wisconsin) tills recognized on the high in-tervalley divides just north and south of Rocky Mountain National Park.