1117 August 26, 2024 Beauty Abounds

We woke early this morning.  Tim fixed coffee and I began to pack.  We had two options for returning to Estes Park.  We had thought we might go south toward Denver and 70 and then take another scenic ride back to the RV park.  Or, we were up and ready early enough that we could reenter RMNP and travel without a timed entry pass.  We elected to go back through the park.

Leaving Sunset Point, the sky was cloudy.

We went back through the Grand Lake entrance. We saw yet another herd of elk.  We have seen more elk here than we have ever seen before.

Big elk hoof prints and itty bitty hoof prints as well.

We stopped at the Holzwarth Historic Site.  There was a nice path here across the meadow and we decided to take a walk.  The cabins are used by rangers and park employees…but this would have been a really cool place to stay!

More Colorado River.

We traveled on and stopped at Rainbow Curve.

Another stop at Hidden Valley for breakfast.  This chipmunk was quite daring.  He actually climbed on Tim’s shoe and tapped him on the leg.  I am quite sure he was looking for handouts.

We took a walk here as well.

We got back to Manor RV Park before noon.  We unpacked and cleaned up and rested.

This evening, we had a timed entry permit for Bear Lake Road at 4pm. We ordered food from Smokin’ Dave’s BBQ and we took that with us into RMNP.

We began with a very pleasant walk around Sprague Lake.

There were more elk alongside the road.

We took a short walk at Bear Lake.

Glacier Creek.

We found a sweet picnic spot along a gurgling stream. We ate our delicious bison ribs with Caesar salad. The ribs were huge and reminded us of the Fred Flintstone version. They were also very lean and meaty. A doe and her twin fawns walked across the stream as we were eating.

We took the road to Fern Lake.

We stopped to sit at a roadside picnic table and Tim caught sight of two mule deer bucks.

We were quietly watching when Tim heard a noise behind us. A herd of about twenty elk walked down the hill and across the road very close to us. It was magical. We watched them drink from a puddle. There were young bucks, mommas and babies.

As we left the park. We saw another momma deer with two babies.

We went into town to get gas for the Jeep.

There were elk in town!

The sunset this evening. Another fabulous ending to a very fun day!

This was our last day in this awesome national park. The grandeur, the wildlife, the lakes and rivers and streams, the alpine tundra, the Rocky Mountains, all conspired to make this another favorite trip! We are a little sad to leave. Tomorrow we will move to Wyoming.