Maybe for the best. We found an absolutely beautiful county park, Hermit Ridge, on the top of the mountain just outside of Estes Park. We stayed 4 days. We nearly had the place to ourselves. It was at 8500 ft so got kinda cold…27F one night. Good thing we have lots of blankets. There was snow the next morning. It was beautiful and thankfully, soon melted. There were some trails too. We tried out one, saw two coyotes and watched them for a while.

Elk – Estes Park – the city herd
There are elk everywhere. We watched from very close (maybe 30 ft) as the elk took over the golf course. It is fall rut so there is much bugling, lots of posturing by the bulls and a few scuffles. We had to move out of the way a few times when the bulls decided to face off. Lots of people around, those poor elk just didn’t get any privacy.

Elk – The Park herd
Bull Elk with harem of 117 females. He expended a lot of energy keeping the “girls” together and away from the 9 younger bulls in the same meadow seeking their chance. A Ranger talk likened it to a high school after football game dance. Great extended metaphor. Too long for this entry but perhaps some other time