Glaciers Not Retreating in Rocky Mountain National Park

While the glaciers in the Indian Peaks area south of Rocky Mountain National Park are shrinking, glaciers inside the park are not.

The four small park glaciers, which provide late-season runoff to park streams after snow has melted, haven't changed dramatically since the 1930s based on photo comparisons, according to work by independent researcher and geologist Jon Achuff.

Their persistence is likely the result of a "perfect situation" that includes plenty of shade, snow blown in from the west side of the Continental Divide and relatively steady cold temperatures.

"The combination is just such that it's a protected spot," said Achuff, who presented his findings earlier this month at the Rocky Mountain National Park research conference.

Recent studies by the University of Colorado suggest the Arikaree and Arapaho glaciers (Arapaho is the state's largest) in the Indian Peaks Wilderness south of the park have lost 60-plus feet of ice thickness since 1960. Those losses have been largely chalked up to the warming climate and an extended melting season. But the glaciers Achuff studied in Rocky Mountain National Park haven't shown the same retreat.

"We do know there's climate change taking place, and these are not reflecting that," Achuff said.