Beavers, badgers and bears, oh my!!!!!

Zoe here from Rocky Mountain National Park for week 2…

Phaedra was not the only lucky one here in Estes Park. We saw tons and tons of different animals. Everywhere you turn there are elk! I even heard Papa say, “Oh, that’s just an elk.” He wouldn’t be saying that if this were downtown Chapel Hill!

Week 2 at RMNP was much colder than last week. It hailed at the camper one day.Some days it was in the low 50s during the day and mid 30s at night. I love to snuggle under the covers on the bed. Papa gets really mad when I stick my feet into his face. I don’t understand why he minds it so much.

Last night it snowed everywhere above 9,000 feet. Trail Ridge Road was actually closed due to the weather. The whole state was hit with flash floods, tornados and hail warnings. One town nearby had six-inch diameter hail and 5 inches of hail covered the countryside. Wish we could have played in it. Maybe we could have made a hail-man.

We did have lots of excitement when Mom and Dad saw 2 nests of baby owls. The owls are Great Horned Owls and they are really BIG! The folks learned from a local photographer that for the past 3 years, owls from this nest had fledged on June 11^th. They watched this nest for 5 days and on June 11^th the owlettes were gone from the nest. They did see one of them nearby but all alone for the next couple of days. They were sad and glad at the same time to see them grow up.

They also saw a family of badgers. Dad was able to see them out of the corner of his eye while we were all driving. I think they are mean so I wouldn’t want to chase them. Papa was also lucky to see a coyote right across the street from their favorite place, Coffee on the Rocks. Without Mom there, he wasn’t able to get a picture of the coyote. Mom told him that he had to turn the camera on before it would focus or take a picture. Poor Dad!!!!

The coolest place we all found was a beaver pond just outside of the park. We went there 5 different evenings to see them. They come out at night since they are nocturnal, you know. We were told that 7 beavers live in the ponds, but we only saw four at a time. We watched them swimming, eating from the bank, peeling bark and climbing from one pond to another. It was really fantastic. A local told us that when they finally downed the aspen tree in our pictures, everyone in the area lost power because it fell on the electrical wires that run right by the ponds. That would have been really fun to see!

We had a great walk around Bear Lake, too. There weren’t too many people and this nice Ranger Girl took our pictures and really liked us – me the best, of course. The first time we tried to hike there was too much snow. Then it got hot up on the mountain and lots of it melted. Maybe that’s why the Big Thompson River flooded in Estes Park. Hmmm! Maybe so.

RMNP is really a great place. Mom & Dad have never seen so many different animals in the previous visits and guess what - we get to come back in the end of August!

Well, in cowboy vernacular, I’m all played out tonight so I’d best skedaddle!

Zoe