Over this last weekend we packed up our family of three, met up with family in Douglas, and headed south to Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park for the weekend.
We had two goals: take photos of fall color and elk, and hear the bull elk bugle. While I didn't come away with any photos I'm in love with, I did get some, and haven't edited all of them, and we did hear quite a few elk bugle - the first time I'd heard them.
When we got to the park the first leg of our drive was up a gravel road to the summit, which was above treeline. I was impressed they had a visitors center clear up there. It was just below the visitors center that we found these elk, and let the record show that Scott took the photo at the top of this post. :-)
This rock chuck was also up there near the elk. Also a Scott photo.
Otherwise, the scenery was pretty, but nothing that can't be equally matched by Wyoming's mountains. I wasn't too impressed with Rocky Mountain National Park, as it's really not very big, and was packed full of tourists from the city. Granted, I'm sure Yellowstone is the same way, and that's why I haven't set foot in Wyoming's park since I moved here. It's much better to find your way into the backcountry wilderness than touring mountains on a highway and seeing them out of a vehicle window. There's a lot of national forest and wilderness areas around Rocky Mountain NP, and I'm sure they have a lot to offer.
But it was a nice trip. We spent the night in Grand Lake, south of the park, and drove back through to Estes Park Sunday afternoon, where the annual Elkfest was taking place. We were going to do some window shopping, but didn't, since we couldn't find a park place due to the 30,000 attendees that packed downtown.
More photos to come, if I find some decent ones in those I haven't sorted through yet.
No comments:
Post a Comment