RMNP-Week Two

Zoe here: Phaedra issued a challenge saying that I can’t top her entry from last week. Well, I did it! How about MOOSE! Not just one, not two, but three moose! When we drove Trail Ridge Road all the way to Grand Lake, we saw a mom moose with her twins right beside the road. Mom and Dad got so excited you’d think they had won the lottery. Boy - was that moose BIG! We had a picnic by Poudre Lake and got to eat lots of Elk Duds. I’m going to miss them

This has been a week of seeing tons of animals and lots of exercise for Mom and Dad. They rode bikes around Lake Estes Loop and found out that riding a bike at 7500 feet is a bit different from riding at 200 feet or even at 4000 feet like in Zion. They had no idea, but they made it back home after some good aerobic exercise!

One night, they went downtown for dinner – you know how much Mom likes to not cook – and there in the middle of Estes Park were 3 large female elk amidst nearly a hundred people who were waiting for the nightly concert in the park. Seems kind of dumb to me that these elk would just hang out, lie down there, and not worry about everyone, but who asks me?

They also found their favorite coffee house, Coffee on the Rocks, where they go for coffee and bagels in the morning if they aren’t doing a long hike and sit on the river or on the lake. I guess there are good cookies there, too, since they went a couple of evenings. One night an elk and her 2 babies were right on the other side of the river from them. And, Mom didn’t have her camera. Can you imagine?

Mom and Dad celebrated their 39th anniversary here in Rocky Mountain. They went back to the Baldpate Inn where there are hummingbird feeders outside of the windows. They had a good time.

Trail Ridge Road beckoned them again, but this time we had to stay at home. This time they got to see some birds; Stellar’s Jay, Clark’s Nutcracker, and the Dark-Eyed Junco – “Gray Race” whatever that means. There was a big marmot and chipmunks, pikas, and ground squirrels, too, as well as elk. Phaedra and I would have liked to be there to give chase, but we were guarding the home front.

Today which is the last day in the park, Mom and Dad decided to hike to Nymph and Dream Lakes. It was uphill all the way – about 1 mile. They liked coming down a lot more. Then that wasn’t enough… Oh, no! They, then, went another mile to Albert Falls. Then it started to thunder. They just made it back to the shuttle bus before it started to rain really hard. By the time they got back to the Park and Ride lot, it was hailing very hard. We got caught another time, too, when it was hailing. That was fun for me, but I don’t think that they enjoyed it. I liked chasing the little ice balls around, but Phaedra thought I was crazy. She’s old, you know.

We’re going to Nebraska next. Mom used to live there when she was a little kid like me, and she wants to visit her old homes. I don’t get it when Dad says that it took him 3 days to drive through Nebraska one day. I guess I’ll find out what he means when we get there.

Phaedra will tell you all about that next time.

Z