Rocky Mountain National Park, Part 2

Be prepared for a ton of animal pictures in this post! :) 

After we drove through part of the park in the morning, we headed back to the room to swim in the pool and soak in the hot tub a bit. That was lovely. Between the bit of hiking we did the night before and the altitude, it felt great. We decided to go back in the the park late in the afternoon in the hopes that the bigger animals would be out and about. We drove through the entire park, ending at Grand Lake. This was a great decision, as the elk and moose seemed to be hanging out on the other side of the park. The unfortunate part was driving back through the mountains at night, but Marshall did a fantastic job. 

First was more gorgeous scenery on the way through the park:

Alpine Visitor's Center in the late afternoon

Then we started seeing a ton of wildlife. Every time we came around bend there were more animals. They didn't seem to care that people were standing around taking pictures. And even though everyone was really quiet, I don't think the elk would have cared. They seemed pretty used to tourists.

Buck Elk

More Buck Elk

Moose

Another Moose

The really cool thing was that we would drive along the road seeing this landscape:

and then all of sudden see a field full of elk. It helped that there were usually a few cars lined up on the side of the road wherever there was wildlife to be seen!

More Elk

Elk

More Elk

Another Moose

This was probably the best picture of the day. It's like he posed for us! Two yahoos actually walked into the field to get a closer picture of him. People truly forget that these are wild animals. Doofuses.

Bull Elk

Top of the Mountains

And yes, there will be a part 3, maybe 4. We did a lot in Estes Park and enjoyed every second of it.