Finding Bull Moose and Ruby Jewel Lake

We set the alarm for 5:45 this morning, because we were on a mission to find the morning moose crowd. It was very quiet in the campground when we pulled out. We stopped first at the visitor center two miles away because the ranger had told us that moose were often seen there early in the morning—but not this morning. Then we headed to the northern section of State Forest State Park. All the roads in this section are dirt, and this is home to the moose overlook where we saw the cow moose yesterday. We drove County Road 41 when the sun was still very low in the sky, scanning the willow-filled creek bottoms that are favorites for the moose. But it was in a forested area that Mark yelled, “Moose!”

Since no one else was out on the road this early, Mark backed up the pickup and headed down the little gravel spur road. Sure enough, two bull moose were standing near the end of that road.

Interestingly enough, this was the dirt road that leads to the “Dancing Moose Yurt.” We didn’t see any dancing this morning, but we did watch as the two bulls ambled off the road towards the yurt.

They paused to nibble one of their favorite snacks--fresh tender willow branches.

They moved into the shadows of the forest, making it harder to take good pictures. But that didn’t keep us from trying.

While we were concentrating on those two big boys, Denisa noticed something lurking in the shadows on the other side of the road.

It was a third bull moose, watching us from the distance.

The first two bulls kept looking his way, as if encouraging him to join them.

He finally ambled across the road too.

When he was in front of the gate that leads to the yurt, we got a good picture of just how long a moose’s legs are. Often they are in tall grass or in the water so you can’t see their entire legs. 

But this morning we could see all of those long legs.

The three guys conferred in the shadows, and we continued taking pictures. 

Moose bulls lose their antlers every winter, and then grow them back in the spring and summer. From the size of the racks they have grown so far this year, we would guess that this is the oldest and wisest of this trio.

This guy seems to be the middle man, and we’re guessing he’s the trouble maker of the group.

The third moose from the shadows has the smallest antlers, so we’ll call him the baby brother of this trio.

Moose bulls hang out together this time of the year. But come fall, they will be developing seniority as they fight for the ladies during the moose rut season.

Honestly, we would have probably sat there all day, watching these three bulls, because this was such a special sighting. But they got tired of us before we got tired of them. The two youngest decided it was time to move out of sight into the thick forest.

The old guy gave us one more sideways pose before he followed them and went out of sight.

What a fun find that was this early morning! It was worth setting that early alarm! We also stopped by the moose viewing platform, but didn’t find any moose hanging out where they were supposed to be.

Now it was time to head out for our hike for today to Ruby Jewel Lake. The trail head was five miles down rutted dirt roads. The first two miles were rated tolerable for two-wheel-drive vehicles. Then the road turned into a four-wheel-drive road and it got bad in a hurry. We made it a mile down that road before we decided it was time to park the pickup and started walking around 8:00.

While the state park was busier during the weekend, we didn’t see anyone out on this Monday morning. We did find one other vehicle parked a little further down the road as the road got worse. Remember, this was a picture of the road--not the trail.

We were shocked to find a little Mazda SUV parked a full mile and half down that awful road! We also noted the big rocks, and a sizable oil stain on the gravel road. It looks like someone scraped off their oil pan trying to get up this road!

We didn't see any other hikers. Who would be crazy enough to go up this steep road anyway? How about a father and son riding their dirt bikes up the road. We talked to them on their way down, and they said it was hard controlling a bike on such a steep road filled with loose rock. They were working even harder than us, as they tried to control their bikes on such a rotten road.

After that 2.2-mile slog up-hill through the trees on a dusty road, we finally got to the Ruby Jewel Lake trailhead. The lake is only 1.5 miles away now. It sure would have been nice to start this hike at the trail head!

Immediately, this turned into a pleasant hike instead of a slog. We hiked beside a creek with water cascading down the mountain side.

We had beautiful wildflowers that were just begging for a photograph.

The butterflies were also giddy with the new sources of pollen on this trail. This is what a hike is supposed to look like!

It was definitely up-hill, as we got closer and closer to the mountains surrounding us. We have wandered into another of God’s wonders!

The mountain meadows were now below us, and they looked more like golf greens with patches of snow instead of sand bunkers.

We continued to climb, until we finally climbed above tree line.

While we didn’t take a single picture of the views in the first 2.2 miles  hiking on that awful road, we couldn’t stop taking pictures once we actually got on the trail.

We had an early picnic (since we had an early breakfast), and then we made the final push to Ruby Jewel Lake. We had been walking for three hours when we saw the first other hikers of the day. They were leaving the lake just as we got there, so we had it all to ourselves. You will never find that in a national park!

We immediately started taking pictures of Ruby Jewel Lake from every angle. Some angles show how perfectly clear the water is so that you can see the rocks on the bottom.

Mark was sitting on the edge of the lake enjoying the views. 

But we couldn’t help but notice that the clouds were billowing up in the sky above the lake.

The mountain that rises above Ruby Jewel is Clark Mountain. At 12,951 feet, it still has patches of snow on it in mid-July.

Mark’s plan was to take a little nap since we had the lake to ourselves. But we found that we would have to share this lovely place with a few thousand bugs. They made napping a little less enjoyable. 

While Mark was trying to nap, Denisa was being greeted by the local marmots. 

Denisa loves taking pictures of these chubby little guys. It’s her opinion that you can never have too many pictures of moose or marmots.

We stayed around the lake for thirty minutes, then started the four-mile trek back down the mountain.

We had climbed up 1,739 feet today, and our legs were feeling it. We had to stop and rest our tired feet a time or two or three . . . on the way back down.

We were in a bit of a hurry since those pretty white billowing clouds we saw over the lake were now looking like angry gray rain clouds. We were hoping that we didn’t get rained on before we got back to the pickup.

But no matter how fast we needed to hike, Denisa will always stop for a good flower picture.

The columbines on this trail were the thickest we had ever seen. The usual purple blooms were almost white. Even though the flowers look great, this part of Colorado was beginning to look dry, and we were in a very high fire warning. They could definitely use some rain. We did get sprinkled on, but it did little more than make speckled rain patterns on the very dry dirt trail.

By the time we got down that last 2.2 miles of boring forest road, we were tired of this trail. This would have been one of our favorites if we could have actually started hiking at the trail head. But since we spent 60% of our hike on a steep and rocky road, we probably wouldn’t recommend it. 

Once we hiked back to our vehicle, we still had to go back on the road that we had driven before it got too bad for our four-wheel-drive pickup. We wish the state park would do something to make the road passable to normal vehicles!

One thing that we really like about the state park is their new shower house. For the second day in a row, we stopped by there for a nice shower right after our hike. This state park has six campgrounds, so it is almost laughable that they only have one shower house with three stalls in the entire park. But if you go there in the middle of the afternoon, you can have the place to yourself. We didn't take pictures of the new shower house, but Denisa did have extra wildflower pictures.

You can be sure that we stopped by the visitor center to log our three bull moose sighting this morning! It was one sighting after our cow moose sighting from yesterday!

We hope to come back to Colorado's State Forest State Park someday, as two of the best trails were closed for removal of dead pine beetle trees while we visited this time. Because this state park sits on the north side of Rocky Mountain National Park, those two trails allow state park visitors to hike to some beautiful lakes that are actually in the national park. But for now, we’re ready to make some dinner and relax after a full day of finding bull moose and hiking to Ruby Jewel Lake.