Elk, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, September 13, 2007
(click on image for larger version)
Information: Yellowstone National Park information
Gallery: Around the Upper Loop, September 13, 2007
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Arrival at Rocky Mountain National Park, August 31, 2009
Rocky Mountain National Park - Eastern slopes - September 1, 2009
I’ve added photos from our September visit to Rocky Mountain National Park to two new photo galleries to my Haw Creek Galleries. Because of the number of photos I took on the trip, I’ll be dividing them up in to galleries by location and, under that, by date.
The first gallery is Arrival – August 31, 2009 and has ten photos.
The second is from September 1 and is primarily from the eastern slopes of Rocky Mountain National Park, with 48 photos. We wanted to take a couple of days to acclimatize at lower elevations before went up over 10,000 feet above sea level.
I’m working on the next gallery and will be posting more from other days of our September trip. I also have galleries to work on from trips in May 2009, September 2008, August and September 2007, June 2007, and January 2007, as well as older trips from before I retired.
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Rocky Mountain National Park — September 5, 2009
We’re really not much for spending a lot of time in shops or arts and craft shows any more, so after Saturday morning in Estes Park, we decided to head back into the park again — up to Trail Ridge Road by way of the old Fall River Road.
(click on any of the following photos to view a larger image.)
Sure enough, a nice group of elk, bedded down for the day.
One of the many switchbacks on the one-way Fall River Road.
Quite chilly, 46°F with a 26mph wind speed for a 37°F wind chill
On the way back down, headed to Estes Park.
Soon after we were in the park, we saw certain indicators of wildlife ahead.
On the way up, we saw much more fall color than just a few days before.
At the top, it was spitting rain with a little bit of frozen stuff mixed in.
Trail Ridge Road at about 12,000 feet above sea level
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image and information from September 5, 2009
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Madison River
September 15, 2007
Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming
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“Around the Lower Loop” Yellowstone gallery September 15, 2007
check out our Yellowstone information page
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I first saw this big fellow from the road below the campground. He and ten or more other elk had moved up into the trees between the campground, which is on a lateral moraine and the Moraine Park meadows below.
I walked back up the trail to the camper to let Karen know about elk being very close to the campground and then walked a few sites down to see if I could see them again. Sure enough, there they were. This big bull elk was in the woods slowly moving up the valley.
At about the same time, I could hear a bunch of coyotes yipping off in the other direction. We had heard a some a couple of nights before, but not nearly as clearly.
Eventually the bull elk bedded down for the day. I guess they are most active at night with their feeding and breeding. The meadows are closed to the public from 5 PM to 7 AM during the rutting season. The closure started the first week of September.
Where this guy decided to bed down was pretty neat, too — right below our campside. I took the picture of our camper below from the same spot that I shot the image above.
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Young spike elk in West Horseshoe Park area
Still smoky
Gold mantled ground squirrel on Aluvial Fan Nature Trail
Karen and Mike at Hidden Valley
Controlled burn in the park
Elk in meadow (click for larger panorama view)
A smoky sunset
Rocky Mountain National Park — September 1, 2009
We decided to limit our first full day to lower elevations rather than heading directly to Trail Ridge Road, which runs up over 12,000 feet above sea level. We started out by going to the visitor centers on the park’s east side.
We got out of the camper fairly early and made it to the Fall River Visitor Center before it opened and saw more elk on the short drive over.
The Fall River Visitor Center is just outside the Fall River entrance station. We hadn’t planned to spend any time in Estes Park or do any shopping until later in the week, but, since the visitor center wasn’t open yet, we decided to check out an adjacent gift store.
The air in the area was still very smoky. I asked the rangers at the visitor center information counter about it and wasn’t terribly surprised when they told me that it was from the fires in California.
After leaving the Fall River Visitor Center we drove through Estes Park to the Beaver Meadows Visitor Center. It really isn’t much, as visitor centers go, even though it is at the entrance to the park that has the highest traffic. The park headquarters is also located at Beaver Meadows.
The next visitor center that we stopped at was at Moraine Meadows, in the same area as the campground. As we were going to an exhibit area on the upper floor, one of the volunteer nature interpreters was announcing a guided walk on the nature trail at the center. It was interesting and we learned a few things.
For example, have you ever got a good whiff of a Ponderosa Pine? Get up close to one and take a smell in one of the cracks in the tree’s bark. I was surprised to find that it a very pleasant odor, reminiscent of vanilla.
Our next stop was the Alluvial Fan.
In July, 1982, the old Lawn Lake dam failed and sent a torrent of water down Roaring River to Fall River. Along the way, it swept anything in it’s path away, including trees and huge rocks and boulders. It left behind an alluvial fan where the steep river mountain valley met the meadow of Horseshoe Park. Several people died and Estes Park streets were flooded with 6 feet of water.
We’ve visited the Alluvial Fan Nature Trail several times over the years and it’s interesting to see how nature is healing, albeit slowly, the scars of a man-made disaster.
Other places we visited included Beaver Ponds boardwalk, where a short boardwalk takes the visitor into meadows that are slowly being formed as silt is deposited in old beaver ponds, and Hidden Valley, which is one of several commercial ventures that have been returned to a natural state.
For many years, Hidden Valley was a ski area. The ski lift was closed in 1992 and removed within 10 years. Restoration of the area to near natural condition continues.
In the evening, we walked from the campground down to the meadow to see if we could see any elk. There was a large number, spread out over the meadow in the area just below the campground.
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