What do you do when your plans fall through on a Tuesday afternoon? Around here, roughly an hour away from one of the greatest natural treasures on this continent, the fallback plan is to drive up to Rocky Mountain National Park, and do a quick loop to look at fall colors and wildlife up close and personal.
Okay, let me stop right here and say to those flatlanders who think "up close and personal" with an elk means getting out of their cars and wading into the meadow ten feet away from a cluster of animals... This is not the wisest course of action. You're better off staying closer to your car. At the very least, stay next to the road. As we were leaving this evening, there were two people who had gotten right up on top of a group of elk. We slowed down and I said, "that guy wants to die." But back to the story.
We didn't leave the house until four this afternoon. The Mr was in desperate need of a nap, so he snoozed all the way up while I drove. We went in the back entrance to Fall River Road, which is the prettiest scenic drive you can imagine. We had just turned onto FRR when he called out "magpie!" I was already past it before I realized the bird was just hanging out on a sign, wondering why I didn't stop to take its picture. I wish I had backed up and captured it in zeroes and ones. It was beautiful.
The sun tried to blind me the entire drive up. It succeeded a few times. I lost track of the road going from the light into the dark, over and over. Luckily, this time of year there are very few cars on this road. Twice the cars in front of us were stopped, pointing at elk off the side of the road, but thankfully neither of these groups were approaching the animals, instead just taking pictures from a safe distance. I can't remember ever hearing elk bugling (whistling) before. I heard it over and over today.
It was just a little too chilly to hike up to the top at Trail Ridge Road. The visitor's center was closed, and it was getting just late enough that we were ready to head home. Along the way, we saw the tourists with a death wish, and on the way out of Estes, we saw a couple of bucks facing off just past the fairgrounds. Not only could we hear their antlers cracking against each other, we could hear them squealing as they fought. It made them seem less like thousand-pound tough guys, and more like whiny puppies. It was terribly endearing. For a last minute impulse drive, this was incredibly lovely.
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