Seatbelted and fighting the sleep she so so needs...
The spirit of Super Sleep Fighter Satchel is with us!
We said goodbye to Boulder, Colorado today and drove into Estes Park, Colorado via the Peak to Peak Highway.
Meek's Peak along the way
We entered Rocky Mountain National Park, and BOOM, we saw an elk!!!! I was THRILLED! We took the very windy, very dirty dirt road, Old Falls River Road to the highest point in RMNP: 11,796 feet. It was gorgeous.
My First Elk EVER!
A sweet spot on the way
On the way to the top...there's snow up there..!
We had lunch at Hidden Valley. It was freaking freezing and so so windy, but we hung out at the car and had some lunch. While we were hanging out, 2 groups of people asked us for directions...we look very outdoorsy you know! Me, in head to toe The North Face, and Jason in his Moosejaw Mountaineering sweatshirt, and our ready-for-anything Black Lab Luna! We're just so approachable...and we know how to read a map.
Former ski slope area - Hidden Valley
We could check into the Moraine Campground at 1pm. Our plan was to set up our site, have a nap, make dinner, and get ready for "the show." Tonight's feature was to be elk bugling for mates on the prairie. It was an awesome night.
Our dinner was chicken and rice in foil packets I'd prepared in Boulder. Jason, in particular, LOVED it - he loves camping. Luna also enjoyed some.
Top of the tent and our view of the prairie
How is it that our dogs always find the dirt?
Jason getting our dinner fire going!
Dinner!
Getting ready for The Show
I made a s'more and enjoyed the visit from three mule deer who comfortably walked through the campground and our campsite. We also saw and heard different birds we're going to look up when we get home. We had campground neighbors I described as "non-plussed." The mule deer family walked right through their site and they just sat at their picnic table with their backs to the deer. I see dozens of deer a year at home, but I can still feel blessed and honored when wildlife passes by. Whatever.
One of 3 mule deer who may have smelled the s'more I made!
Then we saw him. A HUGE elk scratching his head on a bush and completely annihilating it.
He's out there. I swear.
Through the binoculars, I saw him lift his head as if to howl like a wolf, and the most beautiful sound was created. It is described as "bugling," but it sounded more like a flute to me with different males having their own unique tune. They sing their songs in search of a mate and it reminded me of dolphin communication. One male in particular sang all night. I never tired of it during the ~12 hours he searched.
The things that I didn't like were the freezing cold, the slope of the site, the general discomfort of sleeping on even the highest quality camping gear, the vault toilets, the nearby tenter's snoring, Luna's gassiness, and again, the cold. We had all the best gear, my TNF sleeping bag was rated to -15F, but it was just too cold. By the time 8am arrived, it had warmed to 43F. Even those Leanne-averse conditions cannot take away my love of being serenaded by Mr. Elk.
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