Song of the Alpine: The Rocky Mountain Tundra Through the Seasons

Celebrating her life-long love for the "land above the trees," author Joyce Gellhorn takes readers on a season-by-season tour of the alpine tundra. With clear, readable prose and 140 beautiful color photographs (from her collection that spans some twenty-five years), Gellhorn reveals the subtle wonders of this haunting landscape. The plants and animals that populate this often harsh and unforgiving environment have evolved remarkable strategies for survival in their high mountain home. Faced with bitter cold, scouring winds and fierce storms, they must somehow hold on and still find water and nourishment. Gellhorn tells us how they do it, and the intricacies and precariousness of these strategies are astonishing.

The high country of the Colorado Rocky Mountains has been a destination and a home for Joyce Gellhorn for more than fifty years, including some twelve years spent living with her family at the University of Colorado’s research station, Science Lodge—a log cabin at 9,500 feet. Like the snow that would sift through the chinks in the cabin, the alpine, despite its harshness, captured her heart.

She writes: "The clear mountain air, the scenery, the invigorating feeling of physical activity, and the fascinating plants, animals, and insects captivated me. Through the years, these wind-blown forlorn places continue to excite me. It is their wildness—untamed and unpredictable. No matter how many times I visit the alpine, even areas I know intimately, it always shows a different face."