Rocky Mountain National Park

The views in the park were, of course, spectacular! The mountains were rocky, and the trees sparse up high, but the 'largeness' of it all was awe inspiring.

Kayl thought this rock looked really interesting.

Unfortunately, the snow we had narrowly escaped yesterday as we raced through the mountains had been enough to close the upper trail, so we wouldn't be able to go up to the Alpine Visitor's Center. They said it would be gone in a day, maybe two, but that didn't help us much...

One of the beauties of this park is that is has so many different areas fairly close to each other. We did get to go to three of the climate zones, and see their visitor's centers as well as roam the countryside.

This guy showed up when we stopped for a picnic lunch at a picnic table near a stream. Think he and his friends are use to people dropping food...?

Here the kids are playing by one of the streams.  Look closely - see the beaver dam behind them?

After lunch we drove up the access road towards the Alpine zone, just to see if it might have re-opened. It hadn't. This is as far up as we were allowed to go. Still, they had a rest area just below the gate for folks to do exactly what we had - go up as far as we could.

The chipmunks are entirely too friendly! More wildlife too use to people 'dropping' things?

And yet another visitor... We did get the opportunity to talk to a few other visitors who were 'feeding' the wildlife. Credit to my kids (and those Junior Ranger booklets) who told them exactly why they shouldn't do that!

Just for perspective, that valley down there is over a mile above sea level...

...and we passed this sign on the way back down!!

On the way back down, we spotted a bunch of cars pulling over to the side of the road, so we did too. Upon getting out, we got to see a small herd of mule deer up close...

There was one baby in the group we saw. We followed them for a small stretch to get a good close-up of her.

Finally, it was back to the Ranger for the kids' 7th Junior Ranger badge. There was another family with a couple kids near our age, and he did all four at the same time. I do have to brag and say that my kiddos did all of the sections of the booklet, not just the minimum of 6 activities required for the badge.

Since the badges were starting to pile up, I finally convinced the kids to let me get them some Junior Ranger vests to start hanging them all on...

After dinner we went back up into the park. We had been told this was the best time to see the elk, and we found a herd of about 95 of them out in the meadow!

Again, that zoom lens comes in handy! Notice how it's one bull and a bunch of females?  It's currently mating season...  We heard other bulls calling now and then, and at one point one tried to come into the meadow but that big bull chased him off!