Elk Viewing at RMNP

What I know about elk behavior wouldn't make much of a blog entry. I know that they enjoy being approached by tourists less than most of the other locals. I know that the males compete violently for the females when it's time to mate. I know that they tend to travel in herds and property lines and roads don't really mean anything to them.

There's a really big elk herd in Rocky Mountain National Park that sometimes encroaches on the streets and lawns in Estes Park. We've seen then crossing the streets and took quite a few pictures one day when they closed down the local golf course to graze on the green grass. I have a copy of an Estes Park newspaper that has a big color photo of a tourist being chased by a BIG bull elk on the front page.

But I've never seen anything like the scene that we watched last weekend in RMNP. There were hundreds of female elk grazing in a meadow, not a single bull to be seen. At least one of them was trumpeting, an erie sound to hear as the snow was falling and the sun was going down. I'm told that only the bulls trumpet, but I couldn't see one around. Then we watched as hundreds more came roaming up from further down the valley. There was a line of them that stretched for at least a half mile...and more coming after that. We watched for 15 or 20 minutes...it was awesome.

Then we drove on in a loop back to Estes Park. About 6 miles down the road, we rounded the corner and saw a huge bull elk standing no more than 12 feet from the roadway. He was grazing in a hollow and was close enough that we could take flash pictures of him. As we continued on, we saw 20 or 30 bulls all together in the meadows around Sheep Lake. It was too dark to get pictures of them, but it was another really cool thing to see. Every one of them had a rack of antlers as big as our Honda.

To say that elk are "majestic" doesn't really seem to do justice to these magnificent animals.

If you go to Estes Park or RMNP, make the driving loop at dusk and witness this for yourself. But don't approach the elk...they REALLY don't like it.

Have fun!

Scenic Byway: Peak to Peak Highway

"Scenic" is a relative term in Colorado. The state boasts a wide variety of ecological environments, ranging from desert to tundra and virtually everything in between. Drive west out of Denver and the Rocky Mountains and foothills offer an everchanging panarama of interesting natural sights (and a few man-made oddities too).
The Peak to Peak Highway starts in the quasi-quaint gambling town of Black Hawk on CO-119 and tracks through the foothills to Estes Park. Unlike some of the Colorado Byways, this road is continuously paved and maintained throughout the year. The 55-mile stretch takes you through several small mountain communities, past Golden Gate Canyon State Park and through Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests. The drive affords nice views of the Contenental Divide (on a clear day) but it was snowing the day we drove up, which is nice in its own way. The road is well populated and dotted with a variety of lodging opportunities, gas stations and other services.

Snowy days in the mountains offer lots in the way of interesting sights. The most common sights, like barns and old farming implements, take on a sort of surreal beauty. There is also some beauty of the more natural elements, rocks and trees and frozen lakes, to be seen as well. As always, know your own driving limitations with regard to snow and icy conditions. There are some fairly steep grades and sharp twists in the road that can be problematic even when the road is being maintained in winter.

One of my favorite places to stop and snap a few pictures is the St Malo Retreat Center between Meeker Park and Allenspark. The chief point of interest here is the Chapel on the Rock, dedicated to St Catherine of Siena in 1936, which can be seen on the left side of the road as you head north. The architecture is elegant and simple and the dramatic height of its stone foundation on the east side is impressive. The looming presence of Mt Meeker in the background adds to the impact. The door is usually open during the day, but remember to respect those who have come to visit chapel for its primary function: to pray. For Catholics, this is a significant locale as the chapel was visited and blessed by Pope John Paul II in 1993.

The trailheads for Wild Basin, Long's Peak, Lily Lake and Twin Sisters Peak are all along the last stretch of the byway between Allenspark and Estes Park. These entry points to Rocky Mountain National Park have varying seasonal availability. Long's Peak is generally a technical climb between October and May. Other trails may only be open to snowshoers and crosscountry skiers. Check the RMNP website for information regarding trail closures.

Once you arrive in Estes Park (a great destination for touristy shopping excursions) you can return to Denver on a more direct route by taking US-36 back through Boulder. Between May and October (check the RMNP website for exact dates) you can continue on through the park on the Trail Ridge Road Byway and cross the Continental Divide on the nation's highest continuous paved road. It is closed in the winter.

Have fun!

Scenic Byway: Guanella Pass

Known for its autumn aspen viewing, the Guanella Pass Scenic Byway is also a great short trip to take in the winter months. We drove out of Denver on Sunday after lunch, it was naptime for our daughter and we thought we would take in some scenery while she slept.

The byway is a dirt road that connects the town of Grant (on US 285) with Georgetown (on I 70). The road is about 22 miles long and rises above the treeline into a rugged tundra pass at its midpoint. We ended up in Grant quite by chance and decided to drive the byway and see how difficult the road conditions were.

The road is pretty well populated for the first 8-10 miles and the road was fairly well maintained. Which is to say that it was well-packed snow that had been plowed recently. I had no problems in our CR-V, which has 4-wheel drive but is not a high-clearance vehicle by anyone's reckoning. I saw a guy in a Volvo sedan coming down to meet us, but I have no idea how high he got before turning back.

For my part, I drove until signs on both sides of the road announced that it was closed. I was about 10 miles from Grant and the road appeared to be maintained beyond that point for at least a few hundred feet. After that it curved around an hill and was lost to sight. Call me yellow if you like, but AAA won't sent a tow truck after you if you've driven past a warning sign.

Along the way, however, we did see some fantastic sights. It was snowing lightly and so visibility was somewhat diminished, but the views were still beautiful. The approach to the byway on US 285 is really nice. My wife an I have a running joke about how almost all of the highways in western Colorado are "scenic." The stretch of US 285 between Denver and Grant is no exception. It winds through the Platte River valley (the river runs alongside the road for most of the trip) with a great mix of canyon walls and level valley meadows all along the route. The hills are sprinkled with fir and pine trees and the meadows are trimmed with aspens and other desiduous trees that I could not readily identify. Add to this a fine blanket of snow and you have a setting worthy of a Courier and Ives print.

Coming into Grant (blink and you'll miss it) the byway is a right hand turn marked by the columbine emblem of the Colorado State Byways. The road winds through a narrow canyon for some way before opening up to allow for the occasional home or campground. The byway cuts through the Pike National Forest. There is a frozen creek that runs alongside the road for most of its climb to the pass.

Not 3 miles from the highway, we spotted a small group of bighorn sheep perched on the rocks above the road. They stood there and looked at us for about 10 minutes, not more than 30 feet from our car. Magnificent creatures. Of course, that's the point at which I realized that I had left my camera at home.

We plan to try the drive from the Georgetown end of the road in a week or two and see how much of the road we can cover from there.

You can check out the website for this byway by clicking here. They have pictures of spring and summer along the road.

There are places to stop for gas and snacks all along US 285 (including a coney island restaurant shaped like a giant hot dog) but not much in the way of public facilities open in winter on the byway itself. The winter trip is family friendly, providing your kids are old enough to be entertained looking for wildlife (or young enough to sleep through the whole thing) and your family vehicle has 4-wheel drive. Check the weather before you go and know your own driving limitations.

Seasonal Adventure Disorder

January was pretty dry in the blogging department. There were a couple of reasons, but the main thing is that we've been keeping our daughter out of the cold. There have been several good, sunny 40 degree afternoons that would have been great for hiking but since our primary interests run in the mountain trails, we've been taking a little sabbatical.

We took a hike up at Mt Falcon Open Space in early January that was almost a total disaster. We were dressed warmly enough, but were hiking without snowshoes. We got stuck in snow drifts that were literally waist deep and had to climb rather unceremoniously out. My pants were completely soaked and then it started to snow. My wife faired a little better than I did since she weighs less and was not carrying the extra 45 pound toddler. By the time we got back on track and struck the main trail, it was completely obscured by fresh snowfall. If we had not been pretty familiar with the park, we would have been totally lost.

Snowshoeing is on our list of things to try next winter. Until then, we are sticking to the low elevation trails that we're familiar with and driving trips. When the spring comes, we'll jump back in with both feet.