It sounds like they’re right outside…

Last weekend Dave and I started our weekend early and headed out to Rocky Mountain National Park to get in one last weekend of camping before the weather turns and it’s too cold to go. Our hope was to spend a few days enjoying the mountains and to hopefully catch some bugling elk while in the park. Turns out we got much more than we bargained for.

On on first morning there we were woken up around 6:30 to some really loud elk bugling. I mean, REALLY loud. I turned to Dave and said, “it sounds like they’re right outside!” Dave agreed and we slowly unzipped the tent door to see an entire elk herd right in our campsite! We slowly got out of the tent, leashed Gromit and grabbed the cameras. The herd moved through the campsite and we followed them for a good hour just taking pictures and video and enjoying the view. We saw some younger bulls try to challenge the big bull but the little guys were easily scared off with a little charge from the big bull. It was amazing to watch and such a unique experience that I doubt we’ll ever get again.

We spent much of the weekend driving around the park and enjoying the beautiful mountains, wildlife, crazy tourists and trees beginning to change colors. On Friday we drove up Old Fall River Road to the Alpine Visitor’s center where it was snowing a little bit. Luckily that was the only place there was snow and the weather the rest of the weekend was gorgeous. We took tons of pictures of the scenery. Here are a few of our favorites.

 

No camping trip in our family would be complete without at least one hike and this trip was no different. We took a beautiful but sort of eerie hike around Monarch Lake near Grand Lake. I don’t know why, but I was really feeling spooked by wildlife on the hike. I was on alert for bears and moose for no good reason and it, to some extent, ruined the hike for me. It didn’t help that at the beginning of the trail there were signs telling us that the lake trail was clearly marked with arrows but we didn’t see one arrow until at least halfway through the hike and there were very few other hikers we ran into to assure us we were going the right way. I just felt lost and scared the whole time. We did see some snakes on the trail and I totally freaked out. Thank goodness Dave is a patient man and put up with my unnecessary fear.

On the drive back to the campsite I actually got some cell coverage so I decided to see if there were any geocaches in the area and sure enough there was one along the road we were driving on! As soon as we got close to the cache we stopped the car and took a little hike to find it. It wasn’t a hard find and we were able to quickly sign the log, exchange trinkets and get back to the campground before it was dark.

Another thing we like to do all the time is take pictures of Gromit. Here are a few of our favorites from this camping trip.

Now that I have camped for the last time this year I feel like Fall is officially around the corner. It’s hard to believe it is actually coming with this 80-90 degree heat but the weather forecasters assure me cooler temperatures are on the way. I’ve resisted the coming of the new season because I feel like I am still recuperating from the snow storms this spring and I am not ready for cold weather again. But I finally gave in to everything I love about the season and changed my blog theme, Twitter background and started to decorate our home for Fall. So goodbye summer and hello cool weather and warm, inviting decorations. I just hope the snow doesn’t come too soon!