The Living Archive: A Story of the Flat Tops

At first glance, a photograph of a talus slope might show a simple cascade of boulders—a chaotic jumble of rock resting beneath a cliff. But in the high alpine of Colorado’s Flat Top Wilderness, these stones are not silent. They are telling an epic story, a history of fire, ice, and life.

If you listen closely, this is the story they tell.

Part I: The Birth of Fire

Our story begins with fire. The entire Flat Tops plateau, an immense, uplifted landscape, was born from ancient and violent volcanic eruptions. The basalt spires and stark cliffs that dominate the skyline are the cooling remnants of this fiery birth. The rocks in this photograph are not just rocks; they are fragments of an ancient volcano.

Part II: The Sculptor of Ice

For millennia, this volcanic plateau was buried. Massive glaciers, relics of the last Ice Ages, scoured and sculpted the land. They carved the deep cirques and wide valleys, grinding the mountains and leaving behind shattered, vulnerable cliffs when they finally retreated.

This talus slope is the direct evidence of that icy sculptor. It is a living record of how that ancient ice shaped our world.

Part III: The Inevitability of Gravity

Today, the process continues. This slope is not a static monument; it is geology in slow motion. Every single day, the forces of weathering—frost-wedging, water, wind—break tiny pieces from the cliffs above. Gravity, patient and relentless, pulls them down.

This cascade of boulders is an active archive of erosion, a library of mass movement where each rock is a word in a sentence written by time.

Part IV: The Fortress of Life

But this shifting, angular world is far from barren. It is a fortress.

Deep within this jumble of volcanic rock, a unique world exists. The gaps between boulders create a thermally stable environment—a refuge that is cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter. This is the chosen home of the pika.

This tiny, resilient mammal, a relative of the rabbit, has perfectly adapted to life in the talus. The slope is its defense, a maze of tunnels protecting it from predators. The rocks are its pantry, a cool, dry place to store the "haypiles" of grasses and flowers it gathers for the long winter. This slope isn't just a pile of rocks; it's a bustling, specialized city built by geology and inhabited by one of the high-alpine’s most iconic creatures.

Preserving the Story

Capturing this scene on film was an act of preservation. Film, with its unique grain and depth, has a way of rendering deep time. It catches the timeless texture of the volcanic rock and the sharp quality of the alpine light in a way that feels as permanent as the mountains themselves.

The Talus Slopes collection is more than a series of photographs. It is an invitation to hold a piece of this story. Each print is a frozen moment in a billion-year narrative—a reminder of the fire, ice, and tenacious life that built the world we see.