Estes Park–Rocky Mountain National Park

I just got back from Estes Park.  My folks and I left Wednesday morning for a couple of days of elk watching.  We stayed at Streamside; it’s one of our favorite places to stay in Estes.  They have great cabins on the river west of Estes on the road to Rocky Mountain National Park. 

This year we had an extra bonus.  We had a bull elk that was on the grounds most of our stay.  He was there in the evenings and at 6:30 one morning he was just off our patio eating the green grass nubs.  He was a BIG boy, too! 

He lugged around his 6 points with style and poise.

We had 4 turkey hens outside our door, too!

We spent two evenings in the park watching the elk.  We never get tired of hearing the bulls bugle and watching them herd and maintain with harems. 

There were more than a hundred here in two distinct herds:

For those of you not familiar with Rocky Mountain Park, the fences in the background are interspersed throughout the valleys.  They are set up to protect some of the areas letting the natural vegetation grow back as part of the Elk and Vegetation Management Plan. 

Robbie Marie