Rocky Mountain National Park 2011

Rocky Mountain National Park is one of my favorite places to visit.  Created by Congress in 1915, it features grassy meadows, babbling brooks, and soaring peaks over 14,000 feet above sea level.  It also protects America's most accessible tundra ecosystem...in fact, the tundra landscape at ROMO reminded me of the northern Brooks Range in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. 

All of my previous visits to ROMO have been in the summer.  During my first visit in the fall, I was hoping to see golden aspens and to hear bugling elk.  I was not disappointed.

While backpacking, it was necessary to take off my boots and socks and hike up my pants to cross a very chilly river (knee deep).  I didn't realize how cold my feet were until I stepped back on the bank.  I was groaning as loud as the elk! 

After a very close encounter with a bull elk in the foothills (while drying off my cold wet feet), I also saw a female moose foraging in a trail-side pond on the way to the Cub Lake campsite in the backcountry.  There were a few western birds that I added to my life list at ROMO, including Pygmy Nuthatch, Mountain Bluebird, Western Bluebird, and Mountain Chickadee, as well as awesome looks at spawning Rainbow Trout.  It was great to find a flock of Red Crossbills working the cones off of a tree and to hear numerous Townsend's Solitaires singing their tuneful alpine song on the trail. 

Because the forecast called for snow that would close Trail Ridge Road, which was my planned path to Durango, I had to leave ROMO a day early.  I did not want the family lore to include, "Yeah, remember when Brian was stranded in the mountains and couldn't go to Tim's wedding?"  Here's a video postcard of Rocky Mountain National Park.