Wildlife Abounds

As planned, we left Longmont and headed uphill on Monday.  We had already decided to stay in one of the National Forest campgrounds just east of Rocky Mountain National Park.  We chose the one closest to Estes Park which is Meeker Park Overflow.  This is a great spot for us.  It has never been upgraded and only has a few sites we could use, but it does have one particular site that we love.  But I’m getting ahead of myself.

We headed west out of Longmont on CO 66.

To CO 7 up a lovely valley

And along the rushing South St. Vrain Creek.

We’re getting close now

Here’s our perfect site.  Lots of sun for the solar panels, clear view for the TV satellite dish, and nice and level (which most of the sites aren’t.)  Isn’t it picturesque with the budding aspen trees and the field of pretty dandelions?   Best of all, we’re almost the only ones here.  We purposely waited until after the weekend.

While I was still setting up, Ron did some reconnaissance in those aspen and discovered a moose!  He wasn’t aware there were moose in this area.

I was bummed I hadn’t seen it, but a couple hours later we took a walk through the campground and there she was!  We had a bit of a scare since we didn't see her until we were about 30 feet away.

Although she didn’t seem at all disturbed by us, we backed cautiously away and she casually strolled across the road.  Very cool.  

At dusk, Ron wandered around and saw two elk through the trees, but was even more surprised when he looked back at the rig.  This young bull elk seems to be wondering what has moved into his territory.

The funny thing is I was taking a picture out the front window at the same time.  You can see Ron in the upper right corner.

Oh, I guess the elk just wanted a little dandelion salad.

The next evening, I heard some chewing and looked at the side window to see this buck mule deer right outside.

We're waiting for a bear to show up next.

This is the BEST place!  We also discovered a trail right out the back of the campground that goes into Rocky Mountain NP which we explored a bit.  We're still getting used to the altitude at 8600 feet.

Now for the bad news.  We don’t have phone or internet.  I was afraid of that, but we’ll just have to deal with it.  I’ll post when we take a day trip to Estes Park.