What is so special about the Rockies

A view of the Mount Evans Massif from the city. yesterday's photo was taken at Summit lake nested high up between Mt Evans and a neighboring peak.

I have gone on and one lately about the grandeur of the Rockies peaks and flora, but in comparison to many of the worlds mountain ranges the Rockies are not that high or particularly floristically rich. The Himalaya are twice as high and have a much richer flora. In fact the Andes, Caucasus, all of the Central Asian Mountains (Pamirs, Altai, Tien Shan) and Even the Alps have higher peaks and often richer floras. So what is it about the Rockies that makes them so great?

After pondering this question for sometime I think I finally have an answer. While the Alps helped fuel Europe's obsession with returning to nature and things of old during the Romantic Movement, they were by that time rather tamed by centuries of human influence. The Rockies however were just being explored in the mid to late 1800's and were rather untamed and vast. Inspired by the Romantic Movement's return to nature, enlightened Americans and Adopted Americans ( John Muir in the Sierra Nevada of California) started a movement to try and preserve these vast stretches of wilderness for the Future. Yellowstone National Park in the heart of the Central Rockies was the World's first national park. Soon after parks like Rocky Mtn. Glacier and Grand Teton would preserve additional pieces of the rapidly disappearing wilderness. Today national parks in varying forms and levels of protection can be found throughout the world. In many way part of the Rockies grandeur is not their height or their ruggedness but the inspiration they gave people to save something that is still rapidly disappearing today