Rocky Mountain National Park

It’s getting harder and harder to spontaneously enjoy nature, at least in our neck of the woods. Now you have to schedule an appointment for many of the National Parks before you can get in, at least during peak seasons. But schedule an appointment we did, and boy what a fabulous day we had too.

We had scheduled our day at RMNP a few weeks ago. Saturday, we packed a picnic lunch and headed up to Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP) with Mike and Lauren. It was a perfect day. A little cooler and cloudy at first, but it was perfect. At times we were driving through the clouds, and then we were above the clouds, looking down into them. It was very dreamlike.

And believe it or not, there were still some patches of snow at the higher elevations. When we entered the park, the elevation was 8200 feet. The highest part, or peak was 12,000 feet.

We saw a lot of pretty mountain wildflowers. You all know how much I love my flowers.

We hiked down to a gorgeous water fall that flowed heavily down the mountain.

We had some very playful and curious crows who decided to entertain us through lunch.

And best of all, we saw LOTS and LOTS of critters. I always look for critters, and this time they were all over the place. WHOOOOOO HOOOOOO!!! It totally made our day. 🙂

First we saw a momma deer and her baby. I didn’t get any good pictures of the baby. She was shy and stayed protected behind the trees. But momma was curious.

I would have been happy if these two were all we saw, but we were in for a real treat. There were so many elk all around. It is elk season and they were definitely out and about. We even saw two young bucks rutting, and showing off a bit.

Then a little further down the road we saw a much bigger buck who couldn’t be bothered with the youngsters. He was so majestic and gorgeous, and he definitely knew it too.

Again, this would have made my day, but there were still so many more to see as well. We saw another big buck presiding over his herd. We saw 6 all together in a higher meadow, including at least 1 calf.

We even saw him bugling to is herd just to let them all know where he was, and that they were safe.

We were all thrilled!!!!!! It was a fantastic day. I can’t believe how many elk we saw. Sometimes we just get lucky like this. Most of the time though, we don’t see any. But it’s always exciting when we do. 🙂