Ocean's Beginnings

The snow you see here is awaiting the start of its journey to the oceans. Most of what is on the south side of this image(the sunny side) will follow the flowing waters of Clear Creek, the Platte, the Missouri and the mighty Mississippi Rivers out to the Gulf of Mexico and eventually mix through the Carribean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. Most of the snow on the North side of the image will pass through the Fraiser River before joining with the Colorado River to help carve just a little deeper the Grand Canyon before being dumped into the Gulf of California, the Sea of Cortez and then mixing with the Pacific Ocean. I say "Most" because some of this snow will evaporate before getting to join any of these named water flows. Of the water that does get to join in the journey, much of it will be used several times before the final destinations I mention are ever (if at all) reached. The Pacific-bound water is hindered many times along its journey by 6 major water engineering structures - Glen Canyon, Hoover, Parker, Davis, Palo Verde Diversion and Imperial dams all help hold back the flow of the Colorado River for human uses including power, irrigation and basic water needs like drinking and cooking. Most years the last drops evaporate in the Sonoran Desert. The Atlanic-bound water will see many argicultural and industrial uses as well as some of America's most famous cities on its journey southeast. All these delays will actually turn into other beginnings for the individual water molecules trapped in this snow. As the water is again freed to the atmosphere by evaporation, some will take a short journey back to this spot. And some will join tempests of storms across the globe to only fall again to the Earth. So in this beginning, we see an end to another journey. Or perhaps we are only seeing one segment of a non-ending circle.
For more information regarding Berthoud Pass, I recommend checking the Wiki page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berthoud_Pass

USA-Canada / USA-Colorado

Lat: 39° 47' 52" N
Long: 106° 47' 39" W

Elevation: 11,307 Feet

→ maps.google.com [EXT]

Precision is: Medium. Nearby, but not to the last decimal.

Hardware- Canon 30D - Nikon 10.5 Fish Eye - Nodal Ninja 3
Software- Canon DPP Raw converter - EnfuseGui by Ingemar Bermark v 1.0.3 - PTGui 7.7 - Photoshop CS - Pano2QTVR