Estes Park and on to Winnemucca

A view from our room at the Stanley
The morning at Stanley Hotel this morning was AWESOME. The sky as blue as the little Mountain Bluebirds, and not an angry looking cloud in the sky. We had our breakfast at the Stanley Hotel restaurant, as delicious a breakfast as we'd hoped for, Eggs Benedict for Barbara and an omelet for me.
Soon we were on the road again, headed for our overnight stay in Salt Lake City. As I drove the winding way through beautiful canyon land along highway 34 I was already having a touch of post-vacation blues. I saw 2 Red Foxes and didn't get photos of either, and for this trip to Colorado there were no Bighorn Sheep to be seen, insert large self pitying sigh HERE.


Just as those thoughts wound its way through my windier than any Colorado road mind of mine, up ahead on a curvy road shoulder were several cars, and drivers aiming cameras binoculars and huge smiles at a cliff face.

Here's what everyone saw. There are 3 ewes in this photo

Did you see this leaping ewe in the photo above this one?
I didn't notice it until I examined my shots later

They weren't in any hurry

Climbing slowly skyward

All too soon, the lively ewes disappeared beyond our view and we were on the road again.

Not long after were left Colorado for Wyoming we stopped to photograph some pronghorn grazing in the distance. This was our first pronghorn photo op of the trip because at 75 mph we no sooner spotted pronghorn than we were way past getting any shots of them.


Heads down

Heads up!

We spotted hundreds of pronghorn along the highways
I thought these 'so-so' photos were all I was going to get, but later, as we drove along an entrance ramp, we spotted some pronghorns, much closer in.


A doe eyes us curiously

I suspect this is a doe (on the left) and her twins

You can see here, whining is not restricted to human youth
Examining the photos later I noticed I had taken the second of my 'Udder Shots of North American Ungulates'. Too bad National Geographic isn't interested in my udderly facinating series.


Certainly the buck noticed those udders
The Pronghorn buck was certainly the most handsome I've ever photographed.

Pretty boy
Just when you think there is nothing interesting between you and your rest stop for the night, you run into one of those strange little highway tributes. We ran into a Wyoming tribute to, of all non-Wyoming heroes: Abraham Lincoln.


Four Score and what-the-hell am I doing in Wyoming?
Nearby the humongous Lincoln pillar was a Visitor Center that was not too interesting looking from the outside and homages to Wyoming all over a parking lot rest area. Inside however was pretty nifty. There were book cases full of free for the taking pamphlets on Wyoming attractions and history. I was happy to take several free-bee issues of Wyoming Wildlife. There was also the most compact state museum you can imagine.

The outdoor placards were decorated by the bumper crop of grasshoppers

In short, every little thing you could ever have imagined about Wyoming, it's people, wildlife and history were bill boarded and expanded on one little mini-museum. Did you know Wyoming has as many pronghorn antelopes as humans? One of many tidbits available for the curious at the rest stop.

Here, click on this photo and learn yerself up something!

A bit of Grizzly Wyoming History

A little Pronghorn interest
Not much other than wonderful scenery happened for the remainder of our journey other than some interesting spots of autumn in the hills of Utah outside Salt Lake City, where we happily bedded ourselves down for the night.

Autumn approaches

Here Ptarmigan, Ptarmigan, Ptarmigan!

Approaching the aptly named, Rock Cut area

Day two visiting Rocky Mountain National Park and Barbara and I were up very nearly bright and early. Fortified with warm clothing (Barb's jacket, and new hat & gloves for 'moi') it was time for my final assault on Rocky Mountain alpine peaks. In an attempt to not freeze to death Barbara decided to stay behind in the car - made plenty of sense to me.


I look back as I head up the Rock Cut tundra trail

I was a pleased to find at least the local alpine wildflowers were neither cryptic nor hidden. Note: photographing tundra plants is another excellent way to disguise wheezing & panting along the trail.


Humm... Arctic Gentian! Me panting? Harumph! Course not.


Avens.. pant, pant, pant, Avens...

Slowly I toodled up the trail. At one point a couple of hikers passed me by (show offs!) and I looked up indignantly as their dog ran across the path. Then I noticed, it was not a dog, but the biggest marmot I'd ever seen! The marmot could have backed off a grizzly bear - it was HUGE.


Oh, the grow them BIG in the tundra!

There were numerous slate and gold, informative and artful placards along the way. Staring at them intently helps disguise that one has actually stopped to gasp for the thin arctic air.


Lovely gold and slate interpretive posts


Cold, tree-less and uniquely beautiful

Trudging up the mountainside, I marveled at the enormous rock outcroppings. Occasionally I heard the sharp peeps of little birds, but they shot by like bullets and I couldn't begin to guess what they might be. Happily, the rock formations stayed put.


Peculiar looking landscape


pillowy rock outcroppings

I read a trail marker, telling of 'mushroom rocks', formed when shiest layers on top eroded slower than the granit layers on the bottom.


An Alice worthy mushroom formation

So, I stood amidst the mushroom formations, surveying the area. Yep, there were White-tailed Ptarmigan out there all right and I was going to... hey... what IS that screeching, yammering, bustling noise?


ARRRRGGGHHH! Effing HUMONGOUS work party!


"Go away!" I wanted to scream, "Be do-gooders some other day!"

I was distraught. For a bit I pondered just leaving the mountain top, but having come so far, I trudged on to the end of the trail, every step of the way accompanied by teens and young adults, all happily and noisily sweeping up gravel from the trail.


HEY! Come back! I got yer Ptarmigan RIGHT HERE!

I think I was on the trail about an hour or two, and can you believe it: NO ptarmigans. The only bird I could actually get a brief identifying look at was an American Water Pipit. Oh well! Missing the White-tailed Ptarmigan only means some day I get to return to the park.

Following my failed Ptarmigan adventure we drove down to the flats on the west side of the park. Barbara got to visit the Kawuneeche Visitor Center where there was hubbub: there were moose at the Beaver Ponds. Soon we were in the car and back up the road and Barbara got to see some nice Rocky Mountain moose.


This lounging cow is visible only by her big ears


And this cow kept her bum facing the crowd


This shows how far we were from the moose
click here and try to find them!

Post moose adventure we settled in a nice little open meadow for a quick lunch. Across the road a nice grove of aspens showed the first glimpse of fall color.


Aspens tipping into their autumn palette of color

Post moose, post lunch, on our return trip back up and over the tundra road, we found loads of tourists watching loads of elk. Not far from the road a bull elk sought to keep rival males - the too young bulls, the too old bulls, the too like so uncool bulls - from stealing away HIS honeys. One could get exhausted just watching that poor bull as one rival after another sought to nick off with a cow or two.


"HEY! Didn't I chase you away twice already today?"


A coquettish cow leads two bulls on in come hither manner


Oy! A bull gets winded chasing rivals away all day

In the late afternoon, we checked into the Stanley hotel's Manson wing. We hadn't planned to stay at the Stanley Hotel originally, but curiosity and a sense of fun loosened our purse strings and soon we were ooing and aahing over our room at the notoriously haunted and spectacularly elegant Stanley Hotel. But more on the Stanley Hotel come Halloween week...


Stephen King had nightmares here....

On to Estes Park & Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado

OMG - Scenery at the top of Rocky Mountain National Park

After some long goodbyes to our friends at the Peaceful Meadow Retreat, Barbara and I were off for the second leg of our vacation at Estes Park, Colorado, the gateway of Rocky National Park. We had a rocky start all right, with the condo by a river we booked - unbeknownst to me - for a three night stay. I thought I'd booked it for 2 nights with a 'potential' 3rd night. I'll stick to less condo-ish places next time around.

Dropping elevation into Estes Park

Entering Estes Park

Another view of Estes Park

We were so excited it was hard to decide what to do first - I know - EAT! We headed over to the Stanley Hotel where we had a lovely lunch and walked around enjoying the elegance. Then later in the afternoon we took a quick drive up into park, high into the alpine tundra. I was anxious to see it, as on our last trip to Colorado in 2009, there was so much snow, the tundra heights were bared to the public. When we got up onto the mountain, it was snowing!

SNOW on the windshield

Finally we decided it was time to head back down hill, and to my amazement, there were elk bulls on the tundra - bellowing, and better yet, POSING!

I didn't know elk would wander so high into the mountains

Bellowing Bull Elk

As for wildlife, right at the get-go, I was thrilled when Barbara casually pointed out a beautiful Red Fox that sat yawning on a driveway off Hwy 36. I had a small conniption fit when my digital camera carefully focused on the fox, then as I snapped the shutter the camera shutter the focus dulled into a white cotton ball. I thought I was going to cry! I'd consider displaying the out-of-focus shot, but no point in you crying too. Later that evening after dark, a second Red Fox offered me a mulligan on a photo shoot, but alas - too dark out. Drat!


The following morning, leaving Barbara behind in our rental - she wanted some serious R&R time - I got up fairly early for my first quest for White-tailed Ptarmigan. I drove way up to the Rock Cut Pass of the Park, but it was no good; it was just too damned cold! I settled for peering down the sweeping vistas and enjoyed short sojourns at the tundra edge, to enjoy the ensie wild tundra flowers and plants.

Alpine Stonecrop: a hearty wildflower

Petite, White Mountain Avens

When I tired of stooping, I looked up and enjoyed a herd of fat elk lolling on the tundra slopes. Maybe yesterday's Bull elk were the vanguard for the cows?

Elk put the hillside glory into perspective

The hillside's brown & tawny blips are elk

The drive up the alpine tundra was amazingly bright as compared to the previous evening's dark and snowy look. The near-glacial patches of snow were bright enough to blind angels and the clouds were amazing.

A topping of alpine snows

Approach to the Alpine Visitor Center

Alpine Visitor Center, open and under repairs

I nearly had the Alpine Visitor Center to myself, as it wasn't to open until 10:30. So I enjoyed watching fat Yellow-bellied Marmots that nibbled their morning grass and surveyed their Sound-of-Music-ish surroundings.

The Hills were alive, with the sound of munching

What? I'm like meditating here!

Maybe the smaller, yellower marmots are this year's pups

A faded alpine wildflower - Elk Thistle

View Below the marmots and the Visitor Center

Because I was so high on the valley rim, I had the rare treat of watching a little Sharp-shinned Hawk soaring by, resisting my attempts of identifying the little accipiter as a Northern Goshawk (I should live so long!). I decided to continue on down to the valley floor, on the west side of Rocky Mt. Park. I birded a bit on the way but my luck, I was only able to scare up a few Mountain Chickadees.

Meadows on western edge of the park, reminded me of Yellowstone

I decided I might as well drive to the Kawuneeche Visitor Center. It's a cute little spot, and I was sure to get a stamp in my National Parks Passbook. I was surprised to hear the ranger tell someone, there were moose up and down the road along the valley and driving along one was likely to see one or two in the creek, eating willow. Really? Only the previous day I told Barbara there weren't any this far south. So much for Ms. Smarty-pants here!


Kawuneeche Visitor Center, on the park's SW border
So, after unnecessarily harassing the Ranger, who resembled a Weasley brother, about Dusky Grouse, I decided it was time to drive back along the valley floor and on back to the Alpine Visitor Center which had only just opened for the day. So up the road I tootled, until I saw what is known in Yellowstone as a critter road block. What could it be? I quickly parked and grabbing my dinky digital camera peered over the road's edge. EUREKA, THAR BE MOOSE!

View from the roadway 

The Princess daintily leaves her private pond

Nothing like a little willow munching after a nice soak in the pond

So! Seems I had some 'splanin' to do, having told Barbara there are no moose this far south in the Rockies. Oh well! Post Moose I headed back up hill for some a hot mocha & new T-shirt at the Alpine Visitor Center and in Estes Park I got a wool hat and gloves because I'm telling you - the tundra is $%#ing COLD!

Looking down on tundra meadows at the Alpine Visitor Center