Many, Many Firsts!!! September 2010

FALL is our favorite time to visit the Y, Estes Park, and Rocky Mountain National Park.  The weather is cool, even requiring jackets at times.  Snow often visits just to give a hint of things to come.  The Aspen trees and many other plants are a glorious golden with orange and red thrown in.  The crowds have dwindled from the summer, especially on week days.  And the animals come out, seeming to say, "Whoo!  Now there's room for us!"  The elk bulls take advantage, gathering their harems and warding off attempts by younger bulls to "borrow" some of their ladies.


FALL 2010 was no exception.  The weather was gorgeous; it snowed. We hiked a "new for us" hike, designed just to see the beautiful golden trees. We saw more animals than ever, closer than ever, and even some we'd never seen!  And, with Jim's patience, I took many, many great pictures, even deleting some at night to be sure I didn't run out of memory.  Alas, I lost my camera the last day of our trip.


BUT I'd like to share our trip with you anyway; it was our best FALL trip ever!


We hit the trail, Bear Lake that is, early Friday morning.  Rather than going all the way around Bear Lake, we followed the Flattop Mountain Trail for a while.  Beautiful view from up there and Gorgeous Golden Aspen.  As we returned to Bear Lake to continue the loop, we met several people who told us, "Too Bad you missed the MOOSE in Bear Lake!"  To our surprise, though, we met the moose on the trail.  We really couldn't continue our journey until he decided to wander off the path, so I got to take lots of pictures.  This was the first moose either of us had ever seen - and on our first morning!  Just a hint of what was to come!  After such excitement, we went on to Hollowell Park to explore the beaver dams I had discovered earlier in the summer.  The beaver were sleeping, of course, but I got to inspect the dams up close and personal.  Next stop, after  returning to Highlander for lunch, was Sheep Lake. And, guess what we saw!  Yes, BIG HORN SHEEP!  Not really the first time we've ever seen them, but every time seems like the first because we spent so, so many fruitless hours for so, so many years watching for the Big Horn Sheep to come down from the mountains.  The rest of the day was filled with wonderful sitings of many ELK!  I really enjoy watching the bull react when one of his harem wanders away from the group or when another bull approaches.  The most amazing siting came as we returned to the Y.  Three large, beautiful Elk Bulls were lounging on the Hempel Family Program Building lawn and around the corner a bull was standing guard as his harem of nine frolicked on the Craft Shop's play ground!  He was one. nervous. bull!


Saturday morning yielded another early start.  I loved it!  We got to do the Downhill Hike I'd heard and read so much about.  It was awesome!!!  I loved every minute of this hike!  We parked our car at the Park & Ride, took the shuttle to Bear Lake, hiked to the very picturesque Bierstadt Lake for lunch, then to Mills Creek Basin for the glorious golden aspens - not that there was any lack of glorious golden aspens all along the way!  And, finally to Hollowell Park to catch the shuttle back to the Park & Ride for our car.  Returning to Highlander, we were greeted at our back door by a bull elk and his harem of about six.  I watched and photographed a long time as they slowly moved down the mountain, probably going back to play again on the Craft Shop's wonderful new playground.  After a brief respite we left for an early dinner at Bald Pate Inn never expecting more excitement.  But, excitement is what we found as we exited the Y!  Right there, in the middle of Dorsey Lake were two elk bulls sparring on an island created by the low water level!  We slowed and watched a few minutes, but my fear of seeing one of the beautiful bulls getting injured - and our reservations - allowed only a few photographs.  After dinner it was off to see the BEAVERS on Fish Creek Road.  Another first!  I've looked and looked for beavers over the many years we've visited RMNP but to no avail.  It was so much fun to see the beavers come from their houses under the dam.  They seemed to come one by one.  Soon there were several swimming, swimming, getting out of the water, and then going back in. Unfortunately, since the beavers do not come out until just before sunset, there is a relatively short viewing time.  But, that makes it all the more fun to go back again and again!


Sunday's start was not so early or ambitious!  Upper Beaver Meadows provided wonderful scenery for a picnic and several trails to explore.  And, a trip to the Beaver Meadows Visitor Center was definitely necessary!  It was time to replace our Trail Ridge Road cassette tape with a CD! Especially since our 10 year old car doesn't even have a tape player!  Our return to the Y yielded another nice surprise!  Lounging on that island in Dorsey Lake was the older of the bulls that we had seen sparring the day before.  (I had been concerned he might not do well in the battle.)  He lounged while I took many, many really good photos!  Love, love, love it when my subject will sit still for me to shoot again and again.


We took our time Monday morning, stopping in town to take some pictures and driving on to Glen Haven for those cinnamon rolls since our plane didn't leave Denver until the afternoon.  Glen Haven - that's where I lost my camera!  Haven't been back since!!!  I was devastated at first but now am just thankful that I remember the trip even without the pictures! It'll be a challenge to me to capture comparable photos in the future..... and, to not lose my camera again!

Revisit of Hollowell Park

Having discovered Hollowell Park in Oct, 2009, and later learning of its beavers, I was anxious to return.  So, we set out on our last hike of the Memorial Day week.  Finding beaver dams and ponds would satisfy me, as we went in the middle of the day.  This time we followed the trail along Mill Creek (duh!) instead of going the opposite direction.

We collected rocks and noted the flowers along the way.

We even spied deer wandering through the meadow.

Finally, we came to ponds, small ones, at first, and then this larger one!

.....and the pond had a dam!

Could it be the 6 ft dam I'd read about?  (Can ya tell - pond at the top of the picture?  The white is the water rushing over the dam.  I know, I prob'ly shouldn't post a picture that I have to explain!)

The dam didn't look 6 ft high, but we guessed that the water below the dam was unusually high because of the wet Spring and this just might be THE dam!  We wanted to continue on, following Mill Creek, just to be sure that this was THE dam, that there weren't bigger and better ones yet to come!  Alas!  we were halted by a huge marshy area, melting snow flowing into the Creek.  Not being prepared for such, we turned back, leaving further exploration to another day.

First Visit to Hollowell Park

October 2, 2009

The entrance to Hollowell Park can be found just as Bear Lake Road starts to climb from Moraine Park.  There are picnic tables and restrooms ...

as well as parking for the many hikes one can take from this location.  We hiked the Hollowell Park Trail which rolled gently for several hundred yards through a pleasant meadow dotted with Aspen trees.  Unfortunately, we weren't aware that the Mill Creek Basin Trail would have taken us to active beaver ponds!  The main beaver pond's dam is about 6' high with a very large lodge in the center of the pond.  Maybe the Summer of 2010 will be the summer we actually find beavers!

The views fron Hollowell Park were gorgeous.  We were especially excited to find this one of Long's Peak, though; we think it is the exact view, with much superior photograpy,  that is now hanging in Highlander!  Can't wait to see if you all agree!