Denisa got two cantaloupes, green beans, carrots, cucumbers, onion, pepper, and corn on the cob. While we are talking about food, we also should mention a recommendation for the Donut Haus in Estes Park. We stopped for donuts this last day, and wished we had stopped here every morning. Finally, armed with all our fresh produce, a cinnamon roll, and a Boston-cream donut, we are ready for a day in the national park!
By this time of the morning, most of the parking spots at trail heads will be full. So we headed straight to the park-and-ride lot to catch the shuttle. The line was long enough that we had to wait for more than one bus.
It really is a pretty good system for moving people around the park, and we visited with one of the managers of the transit company that provides the buses. We were surprised that the lines were still this long after Labor Day, but he wasn't. The fall brings the leaf peepers and the fans of the elk rut (or elk mating) season.
We should get used to the crowds, as we will be seeing them on the trails today. We've decided to hike some of the most popular trails on our last day in the park. In the park newspaper, none of the long hikes are listed. Instead, one page lists the "Gentle Trails" that most visitors will do. So we are tackling several of these today. We got off the bus at the Bear Lake stop, and headed up the trail on this 3.7-mile hike. We will hike past several lakes today, including this lily-covered Nymph Lake.
The trail also took us beside Dream Lake. The bad news of these gentle trails is that they are very crowded. The good news is that means plenty of other hikers will offer to take pictures for each other.
The trail meanders along Dream Lake, with a great view of the Rockies behind it. We love wandering God's wonders on these gentle trails today!
The perfectly clear water made us feel like we could just pick a rainbow trout out of the water.
You know it's ultra-clear when we could not only see the fish perfectly, but also its shadow on the floor of the lake.
Instead of a hiking trail, this should be called a stair-master trail. We stepped up . . .
and up, and up some more.
before we got to this trail's destination at Emerald Lake. We are wandering His wonders today, even on these gentle trails!
Most people are content with the views right beside the lake. But of course Mark likes to scramble to the top of the rocks above the lake. There seems to be a little sunbeam lighting him up on the top of the rocks.
Mark has a phone app called "AllTrails" and we have really put it to work this summer. AllTrails showed that this popular trail had an alternative route back, so we did that. It took us off the well-groomed and heavily traveled trail, and into the thick forest where few feet have trod.
We were surprised and delighted to find wildflowers here.
Who knew that we would still be finding flowers blooming up so high and so late in the year!?!
Back to Bear Lake, we caught the shuttle bus for our next gentle trail. We got off at the Glacier Gorge stop, and headed up the 2.2 mile trail towards Alberta Falls. We've been looking for golden aspen, and we found a few trees that were beginning to turn.
We love the blue skies and the gold aspen leaves. Today we'll have to settle for blue skies and aspen leaves with a tinge of gold. The locals are telling us that the fall foliage season here is noticeably later than it was last year.
On this beautiful blue-sky day, the view of Alberta Falls was very crowded. It was tough to get a picture without too many people in it.
But Mark found a way. By climbing to the very top of the falls, he found a place narrow enough to jump over the water. So here he is, the only person on the other side of Alberta Falls.
From there he can take a picture of Denisa on the side of Alberta Falls where all the sane people stay.
The sun was shining on the rock walls on the hike back, and a fellow hiker offered to take our picture together. We're taking advantage of the crowded gentler trails to get another picture together.
Our plan was to take the bus from the Glacier Gorge shuttle stop to Sprague Lake. But for some reason, we decided to make the three mile hike there instead. After hiking with the crowds this morning, we have the forest all to ourselves this afternoon.
We hiked all the way to Sprague Lake, but the big moose forgot his appointment at the lake once again. After looking unsuccessfully for them all summer, we've decided that moose are totally over-rated anyway! Since we have now finished all the "gentle trails" on our list, we caught the shuttle back to the park-and-ride parking lot where we left our car this morning. That left us just enough time to drive down to the meadows to see how the elk rut was going.
Hundreds of people were already at the meadow, including some that had hiked closer to the bulls than they should.
Even from our safe distance, we could see the big bull elks very well, in that classic bugling pose.
We have never witnessed anything like this elk rut. From our vantage point we could see that the cows were divided into groups of about a dozen each. Each group of cows had a single bull that was standing guard.
Several bulls were approaching from the front, trying to make their move to impress some of the ladies.
The guard bull bugled out his warning, then approached the interlopers to scare them away.
While the bull guarding his dozen cows was pre-occupied with the threatening bulls, the bull in the upper right hand corner of the picture below made his move. This bull had around ten cows in his harem, but he stole one of the busy bull's cows while he wasn't watching.
It was fun to watch the game play and listen to the bugling right in front of us.
At 5:00 a ranger shows up to instruct everyone sitting in the meadow to return to their cars. In the meantime, more bulls are approaching from different directions. As we walked back to our car, we watched this big guy come out of the trees bugling his warning to the other bulls.
It was a fun ending to a day of elk-watching and gentle hiking (with over ten miles for the day). It's our last day in Rocky Mountain National Park, and we're a little sad to be leaving all of this gentle majestic beauty behind.
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