Rocky Mountain NP-Elk Tales

Hello Everyone,

On Friday, Sept. 27th, we awoke to a rainstorm, so we hung around the Inn until afternoon doing some errands and more long-range planning for our adventure. The rain let up just long enough for us to take a short hike on a small trail behind the hotel. Then we drove thirty miles to Grand Lake, CO, to take a hike in the town's recreation area where we found there a been a recent forest fire and the trail was not in very good shape. Just as we got out of the car it started to pour again, so we returned to Rocky Mountain National Park hoping to see more Elk or Moose.

We only found a single Bull Elk and one cow right in the Timber Creek Campground with several people getting much too close, risking being attacked by the bull elk.

On Saturday, Sept. 28th we drove ten miles back to the end of Granby Lake to the Arapaho National Forest where we found the seven-mile-long Doe Creek Trail, a dog-friendly hike that winds around a mountain overlooking the Westside of Granby Lake. The Fall foliage was beautiful and we very much enjoyed the long hike. The only thing missing was that we didn't encounter any wildlife on our adventure.

The Aspen trees (vivid yellow leaves) in particular added brilliance to the otherwise green conifers creating a nice kaleidoscope of color to the mountain trail. 

Aspen trees are interesting in that they shed their lower branches as they grow taller leaving dark scares where the branches were, as the higher branches seek sunlight. They also have the distinction of being the first trees to reroot themselves after a forest fire, leading the way for regrowth conifers to get started on the cycle of reforestation.

We saw evidence of forest fire damage and insect infestation as well along the trail. Much of the western forests have been invaded by insects that kill pine trees, so there are many places with dead and dying pine forests which increase the chances of forest fires because of the increase of available fuel to feed the fire once it starts (often from lightning strikes).

The view of Granby Lake from the top of the mountain was awe-inspiring.

In the late afternoon, Mom and Dad left me at the Inn to take a nap and drove back to Rocky Mountain NP to spend some more time hiking and try to find some more Elk herds. 

They tried the Coyote Valley trail in the center of the river valley first but found no wildlife there.

Just before dark they were successful and discovered a huge Bull Elk with his harem of over 22 females not far from the Timber Lake Campground in the park. 

A Male Elk produces a very unique sound when trying to attract females during their mating season. The sound is a haunting, shrill, sound called bulging.

Other males stay just outside of the range of the harem and try to entice females to leave the harem and come with them by using that same mating sound to gather their own harem. 

The bigger males will challenge the intruder males, sometimes engaging in combat using their antlers and feet as weapons. Sometimes the contest gets so intense one of the combatants does not survive. Sorry, the sound portion of this picture does not work properly.

Tomorrow we will get ready to move on and say goodbye to Rocky Mountain National Park😀.

Close Encounters ...of the Moose kind.

Hi Everyone,

On Thursday, Sept. 26th, we drove 10 miles up a very bumpy gravel road, over an earthen dam that forms Granby Lake, to Monarch Lake near Granby, CO. This is situated in a remote Federal Recreation Area in the Arapaho National Forest, called the "Indian Peaks Wilderness Area". There we found a large gravel parking lot with several other SUV's parked and other people getting their gear ready to go hiking.

There were over 50 miles of hiking trails to choose from and we decided to stick with the trail around Monarch Lake. 

We were about six miles into the hike when we came across a couple who were excited about just having seen a moose family cavorting around on a sand bar at the edge of the lake. We decided to stay there and see if the moose family came back out of the willow trees and brush on the sand bar so we could view them and maybe take some pictures. We could hear them grunting, so we knew they were there. 

Moose are either solitary animals or they stay in small family groups. A male moose (bull) will usually stay with one female (cow) and her baby (calf), unlike the Elk who usually have multiple female mates.

Well, we weren't disappointed and had a great adventure when the moose family came out of the bushes about twenty minutes later. First the mother and baby came out from the bushes. Notice how big the calf is, nearly as big as the cow.

They noticed us on the shore but kept on munching on water plants, and didn't seem to be intimidated by our presence.

Mom and Dad were excitedly snapping pictures and some other people stopped to look and exclaim loudly at the sighting, which made me excited and I began to bark.  Then the bull moose came out of the bushes too and he was headed right for us.

Some park rangers came along just then, while Dad was trying to calm me down. The rangers told Dad to take me down the trail away from the moose family because the bull moose would attack us if I kept barking. Apparently, moose don't like dogs and they will attack if they feel threatened.

This guy was about six feet at the shoulder and between 1600 and 2000 pounds, so we didn't want to provoke him anymore. It was great fun watching them for a while, but then they came close to the shore where the trail was and we couldn't go by them.

Another very experienced hiker came along and told us she was warier of moose than of elk or bears because they were more unpredictable. She told us that moose, although they look big and gangly, can accelerate up to 40 miles an hour when they attack, which is many times faster than any human being can run.

We all waited for about half an hour until the moose family moved a little further from the trail and then one by one we tried walking past them. They were about twenty feet away from us, so Mom picked me up and Dad rubbed my ears and talked to me to distract me from barking as we passed by.

It was a great adventure with a very nice hiking trail, and the moose encounter was both thrilling and scary at the same time.

Tomorrow we will try to see more Elk and Moose in Rocky Mountain National Park😊.

Rocky Mountain National Park

Hello Everyone,

On Wednesday, Sept. 25th, we left early (or so we thought) and drove 15 miles to the park. We tried several viewing areas before we found any wildlife that was close enough to view or attempt to take pictures.
This is the time of the year that elk choose mates known as the "rut". The bull elk have a mating ritual that involves a unique mating sound that they emit to draw the attention of females, who then become breeding mates. It is not unusual to find a large bull elk with a harem of several females. There were bull Elk bugling far off, but only one close enough to photograph with a long-range lens at Beaver Creek.

Later that day, around 5:30PM we went back into the national park to the Beaver Creek area again. 

This time we were more successful and found a huge Bull Elk with a harem of 21 cows (female elk). It was interesting to watch him constantly bugling and trying to round up the females as they wandered off away from the group. He also had to fend off the attempts of other bull elk who were attempting to lure the females to leave the harem and come with them.

Here the bull is rounding up one of his "ladies" who has wandered too far away from the rest of his harem. His antler rack is about six or seven feet wide, denoting his age. Elk antlers are shed in the winter and regrow each year at a rate of about one inch per day on a healthy adult male.

We also fund a single female moose not far away in a grove of conifers (pine trees). She was grazing and keeping track of her offspring who was mostly hidden in the among the dense pines.

We asked the rangers at the visitors center where we could go the see more moose and they suggested we explore Monarch Lake south of the park near Grand Lake, CO.

Tomorrow we will be driving to Monarch Lake to hopefully see some moose in the wild😊.

Rocky Mountain High

Hi Everyone,

On Saturday, Sept. 21st, we returned to the Dotsero Ute Trail near where we are staying for another hike, further this time. This picture is taken, looking down the valley toward Eagle, CO. from the Ute Trail.

This house in the foreground is the place we stayed for five days in Dotsero, Colorado. When we took this picture we were high up near the top of the mountain looking down on this house and the housing development on the other side of US Route 70.

On Sunday, Sept. 22 we drove to Eagle, CO where we hiked on the Hernage Gulch Trail. We hiked nearly six miles up a narrow footpath to the foothills of the Rocky Mountains through growths of sagebrush and other high plains vegetation. I met a few people and dogs, so I got to make new friends.

On Monday, Sept.23rd, we drove East past Vail, CO to Granby, CO, near Rocky Mountain National Park. We are staying at the Inn at Silvercreek just outside of Granby for the next week while we explore the National Park and surrounding area. There are over 300 rooms at this huge ski resort.

From there we hiked up the Fraser/Grandby Trail to the top of the mountain that overlooks the valley near Grandby, CO.

That big structure on the other side of the valley from the Inn is a Walmart, a gas station, and a restaurant complex. You can just make out the trail we hiked up in the foreground.

On Tuesday, Sept. 24, we drove to Rocky Mountain National Park, where we encountered Elk by the side of the road, before we entered the park near Grand Lake, CO.

Grand Lake is a very picturesque alpine lake just outside the entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park on the Westside. We explored the town and found it to be touristy and expensive.

We are starting to see the leaves turn on the deciduous trees in and near the national park.

We only spent enough time the first day in the park to orient ourselves and drive up to "Farview" overlook on the Trail Ridge road.

If you look carefully in the distance, you can see the road we drove up to the top of the mountain.

Tomorrow we will get up early and try to see some of the wildlife in Rocky Mountain NP 😄.

Colorado River Canyon

Hello Everyone,

On Wednesday, Sept. 18th we drove back along US Route 70 past Vail, CO., to Eagle CO. There we stopped at a Ranger Station to get some hiking information on the Colorado River Canyon area.

From Eagle, CO we drove further west to Dotsero, CO where we will be staying for the next few days. Nearby is the Dotsero Ute Trail, so we hiked several miles up steep switchbacks to the top of a mountain overlooking the Colorado River valley.

The next day, Thursday, Sept. 19th, we tried the River Walk and Duck Ponds trail along the Colorado River between Gypsum, CO, and Dotsero, CO where we are currently staying. As you see, this is another very picturesque paved trail for bikers and hikers that runs along the edge of the Colorado River, some fifty miles.

On Friday, Sept. 20 we drove about halfway to Glenwood Springs, CO to Grizzly Creek where we found the trailhead and hiked about six miles up into the canyon. The entire hike would have been over 11 miles with an elevation gain of over 1,730 feet, but we decided not to attempt the whole distance, especially the part that rose up several hundred feet of a near-verticle cliff near the top.

This is what a rock slide looks like in the West. They are a lot bigger than the ones we have seen in the East. Some of these rocks are as big as a house, most are as big as our car.

I met a few people on the trail and some other dogs that were taking their human parents for a walk to keep them healthy, just like me.

Tomorrow and Sunday we are heady East to some trails near Eagle CO, and hoping to do some more hiking if the weather cooperates. 

Monday we are planning to go on to Rocky Mountain National Park😌

North Park Colorado

Hello Everyone,

On Sunday, Sept. 15th we drove from Rifle, Co to Walden, CO, over three and a half hours. Some on a scary secondary mountain road with very few guardrails and bumpy in many places. I didn't like the road between State Bridge, CO and Kremmling, CO, and neither did Dad who was driving.

Encircled by mountain ranges, the North Park area of Colorado is a secluded and pristine region that boasts that it is the Moose Viewing Capital of Colorado. These beasts are often spotted browsing among the willows and brush along the many rivers, creeks, and wetlands in the area.

Along with moose, antelope, deer, elk, bighorn sheep and black bear abound. Great flocks of migratory birds pass through annually and many types of fish thrive in the rivers and streams.

On Monday, Sept. 16th we drove 30 minutes to the Moose Visitors Center in State Forest State Park near Gould, CO. There Mom took a picture of Dad standing next to a full-sized stuffed Moose so you could gauge how big they are.

We left the visitors center and drove a short distance to the Ranger Lakes trailhead which is the trail the rangers recommended to us. We saw several small lakes and met some very nice people on our hike but had no luck in viewing any moose.

We finally gave up and were headed back to Walden, when out of the forest by the side of the road popped a great big bull moose right in front of us. He hopped a fence like it wasn't even there, stopped in the middle of the road, no more than fifty feet away, and faced us for a portrait.

A few miles down the road we encountered a Golden Eagle sitting on a telephone pole closely watching a roadkill badger for an opening to have a snack.

We are staying a few days in a nice little house outside of Walden, CO, very near the Arapaho National Wildlife Refuge, at an elevation of over 8,000 feet.

The wildlife refuge is a mosaic of habitats from wet meadows to upland sagebrush and features a wide variety of wildlife. A rich diversity of wildlife includes moose, beaver, muskrat, river otter, ducks, geese, songbirds, elk, mule deer, pronghorn antelope, prairie dogs, ground squirrels, hawks, and eagles. 

There we found some friendly white-tailed prairie dogs cavorting around the edge of the road and posing for pictures. These creatures are smaller than their cousins the black-tailed prairie dogs we have seen before.

On Tuesday, Sept. 17, we awoke to warnings of imminent rain. So we took a ride out into the high desert and took a hike before the rain came, then went home to eat lunch and do some planning for the next part of our Great Adventure.

Tomorrow we are moving closer to Rocky Mountain National Park to start exploring that grand location😊.