Rocky Mountain National Park

Rocky Mountain Big Horn Sheep

Barb in my "yellow tripod"

Elk on north side of RMNP

Our favorite picnic site in Endovalley

Lots of snow at Rainbow Curve

Elk on south side of park

Mule deer behind RMNP south visitor center

Didn't finish my blog about Barb's visit. It was interrupted by the oriole blogs. So back to our day in Estes Park and RMNP. Whenever Barb visited Colorado, one visit to Estes was never enough for her; she sometimes went as many as three times in one week. So she was excited to go (and she went there again two days later!).

We stopped at the south entrance visitor center and asked where we might see some elk. The ranger told us there was a small herd right behind the visitor center. So we very slowly drove on the roads back there and were lucky to spot two mule deer resting in the trees, and around another corner, the herd of elk. We were VERY excited to see these animals, after never seeing a single animal on our trip up the Poudre Canyon.

The ranger told us the road was open to Rainbow Curve -- Trail Ridge Road isn't open all the way over the Continental Divide until Memorial day weekend (or later) because the park gets TONS of snow and it takes a couple months in the spring to get it open. There wasn't much traffic on the road, as it was a Wednesday, so we went really slowly and saw a couple more mule deer on the way up. At the curve Barb carved her name in the snowbank -- they had plowed the parking lot there so we could get out and look down the valley -- beautiful!

On the way down we took the fork in the road to Horseshoe Park. There is an entrance to Endovalley, which is a road that goes a couple miles back to a wonderful picnic area. In years past, whenever relatives came to Loveland, we spent a day in Estes and had a picnic in Endovalley. The sign said the road was closed, but there was no gate up, so we drove to the picnic area and found our favorite picnic site, right across the road from a little stream. Such fond memories of those picnics.

We were excited to see another herd of elk just before we left the north entrance of the park. They looked kind of mangy this time of year, but it was fun to just sit in the car and watch them. Well, actually Barb didn't sit -- as I told her to stand up, put her head out the sunroof, and take pictures from that vantage point.

The park has built a wonderful new visitor center at the north entrance to the park. We pulled into the parking lot and Barb said "Those rocks are moving!" I glanced to the end of the parking lot and it did look like rocks, but in fact, it was a small herd of big horn sheep. And they were coming right through the parking lot. I quickly stopped the car and turned off the engine; Barb hopped up into her photo-taking stance and got some great pictures.

We were amazed at the ability of the sheep to just stand still one second, and then the next second, hop right over the fence, with what looked like very little effort. Three of the sheep performed this trick for us. You can only imagine Barb's excitement! She was giddy. What a great day for watching wildlife.