Elk Meadow Lodge & RV Resort, Estes Park, Colorado
As water reflects a face, so a man’s heart reflects the man. ~ Proverbs 27:19
It’s good the plural of deer is deer, because we only saw one today, rather than a herd. Darn! It was a good 6-mile hike on Deer Mountain today, with just over a 1,000’ climb to its summit at 8,930’, but that one deer was the only wildlife we saw. Unless you count chipmunks. Those little critters scramble everywhere in this Park. And a couple of horses who were on a guided trail ride. Not sure they count as wildlife, though. 😊
The trail? The trees? The mountain?
I’m going with the trail, because I certainly don’t remember walking sideways up the mountain. : )
I don’t know if people have built a cairn around it,
or if the Park Service did for some unknown reason.
By the way, that’s not snow, it a lake that’s reflecting the sun. : )
That’s it. Just the one.
Time to head back now.
Unusual color!
It took us about three hours to go up, sit for a spell, and get back to the Jeep. Still lots of time left in the day, so we drove the Trial Ridge Road, stopping at a couple of places along the way.
and even though they say they have 300-400 of them, we saw nary a one. : (
Then we decided, because we enjoyed the Alpine area so much, we’d take the Old Fall River Road again (the one that goes one way up the mountain, remember?), only this time, Blaine talked me into driving. It wasn’t as nerve-wracking as I expected. I think because it was one way (no need to worry about on-coming traffic) and I could hug the side of the mountain. 😊
There was a stop on the road that we’d passed by the last time – Cascade Falls. We drove by last time because there were so many cars there already, but today it wasn’t so busy. It’s a beautiful waterfall with a platform perfectly positioned to observe it in all its glory!
Continuing up the mountain, we came to a truck stopped in the road. Whenever that happens, you always wait patiently and look around because chances are, they’ve spotted something.
The Alpine area was just as fresh and breathtaking as always! And provided us something we hadn’t witnessed before – – a small herd of bull elk – “the big boys” as a Park Ranger had told us the other day. And my attempt at creative photography actually worked pretty well! I was happy, anyway. 😊
If you look, you’ll not only see people on the trail, but to the left are the elk lying down.
Fortunately, we had the foresight to bring the binoculars along.
The marmots didn’t seem to mind sharing, and unlike the one the other day, they didn’t attack us where we sat. They must’ve been tired from their day of pilfering and begging. : )
But our eyes are created so marvelously, we could see much better than our phones!
Thank You, Father!
Can you pick it out of the line up?
The Visitor Center is just ahead on that ridge.
Back home, we were treated to a comedy show at the neighbors.
I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned them before, but this campground has ground squirrels running around. If I neglected to mention them, it’s because they’ve never been around our neck of the woods. But this afternoon, that changed.
Our neighbors left one of those collapsible trashcans sitting out, and I noticed a squirrel peeking over the edge. I told Blaine, and the two of us watched it for a minute. It wasn’t long before it was joined by another, and then another, and then another. We watched them figure out how to get up and in, either by crawling up the side, or jumping onto the nearby cooler and then in. We watched them jumping out and then back in again, and run around each other, and all the while, we assumed there was trash inside, but they never seemed to be eating anything or bring anything out with them.
Sometimes they’d jump really high!
This one’s trying to climb.
You’d had to have been there to see the comedy in it, I guess.
They really were quite hysterical!
And after they left, strong winds kicked up. And I mean really strong! And we watched as suddenly, that trash bin turned on its side and barreled through the campground, down the hill and past the office – empty – which means those silly squirrels were just playing in it. It happened much to fast for us to even contemplate catching it. It was gone in the blink of an eye!
When the neighbors returned home, the wind was over and Blaine told them about the bin. “We’ll just buy a new one.”, the guy said. Even though his son offered to go find it. Well, I guess someone down the hill has a new trash bin.
And that’s all the excitement for today. 😊
Tomorrow we ride!