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The moose encounters continue. I woke up early (like 5:30) and could hear noises but I didn’t remember if it was a bear sound or a moose sound. There was a bear in the campground the night before and it got into a cooler a few campsites down. We have been very careful to pack EVERYTHING back into the truck including all food, drinks, and even toothpaste, so I wasn’t too worried that the bear would get in to our tent. I finally had to get up and use the restroom and when I did, I saw one of these babies eating branches on the side of campground road a couple sites away. Another couple was standing in the road right outside our campsite looking at it too. Where was the mother? We didn’t dare walk by it in case we came in between them. We ended up cutting through someones campsite to go around to the parking lot. Sure enough, the mother wasn’t too far away. When I came back to the campsite, Mom and babies were snacking right across from our campsite. I sat down and watched them for about 20 minutes. The babies were chasing each other back and forth while the mom munched away. Finally they settled down in the same spot we found them when we got to the campsite. It was magical. 

If you EVER go to Rocky Mountain National Park and plan to camp out, you should definitely go to Elk Creek Campground in Grand Lake. Best campground experience ever!

We saw a sign and took it down a gravel road. The road eventually led to a dead end but the view was spectacular! It was open range which is common out here even along the main highways. But this cow was very near the side of the road and couldn’t figure out what we were doing there. I was wondering that myself, but we did bring the truck so we could go off-roading.

Some of the grades on the highways we traveled were 8% grade which was pretty steep. We saw a semi that had smoking breaks at the bottom of one such stretch of road. In order to prevent death by careening off a mountain, the highway department created these runaway truck ramps so the semis can go onto them. They are full of sand and go slightly uphill so it slows the semi down. The boys thought that was pretty cool.

We stopped at Steamboat Springs for lunch. Jeff used to ski here every winter so we went to the ski hill to take the gondola up to the top of the mountain. The ski hill caters to mountain bikers and hikers during the summer and had an area of things for the kids to do. An employee handed us free ride passes and Carson chose to do this! 

He jumped about 3 times and got pretty high in the air before he was done and wanted to stop. We were pretty impressed that he even wanted to try it!

After the jumping trampoline ride, we rode the gondola up to the top of the mountain. This was Spencer’s favorite thing and he was snapping pictures like crazy. 

The gondola only goes about halfway up so here is a picture of the rest of the mountain.

We had lunch and the family posed for a picture on an unused chairlift, then rode the gondola back down. The boys wanted to ride it again, so Jeff took them up and then down while I went to the one shop that was open during the summer. 

Then we were back on the road until we got to Dinosaur National Monument Campground. No cute animals to greet us this time, but the bark on this large tree in our campsite was pretty interesting.

This was the view directly behind the campsite.

This was the view in front of our campsite. There was rain heading our way so the clouds were pretty thick.

We all went to the Ranger talk after supper. She talked about bats and was really interesting.  Rain started right at bedtime and it rained really hard a lot of the night. We were safe and dry in our tent and had a great night’s sleep.

This is mostly a day of rest for us. We stayed two nights at Elk Creek Campground in Grand Lake, CO. This is perhaps the best campground that either Jeff or I have ever stayed at. Not only were we greeted by a Mommy moose and her twins when we got there, but this guy was munching on leaves right by the playground when I got up in the morning. He was huge and in this picture, I hardly used zoom at all, but don’t worry, I was at a safe distance and right near the building so I could duck into the doorway if necessary. The moose here are very used to people apparently because a teenager was Facetiming with everyone he knew at the picnic table right in front of me. The moose didn’t even care about all the talking.

We relaxed for the morning and the kids made a lego kit and played at the camp site. We made lunch and then set off to go back into Rocky Mountain National Park to do a little more sightseeing and some easy hiking.  We noticed a forest fire a couple miles away in the Park. We were told that it was nothing to be concerned about yet and that the Fire Fighters were on it.

We went way way way up again, ears were poppin’! We saw some leftover snow and glaciers. 

I also took some obligatory flower pictures because that is what I do when we go hiking. We were above the treeline so the flowers can not grow very large there.

The views are beyond breathtaking. The pictures can not show how powerful this amazing earth is and how insignificant one feels standing at the top of the world (well at 12,300 ft. above sea level).

There were a couple animals that we saw on our hike. It was so silent up there except for the chirps of this bird and the chatter of the Marmots calling to each other.

The view from the end of the path was pretty decent too.

The clouds are so low here that the beautiful sunbeam doesn’t have far to go to reach the meadow.

After we got out of the park, we went to Grand Lake for dinner. Jeff and I both loved this town. Estes Park on the east side of Rocky Mountain National Park is far busier and more “touristy”, it had a similar feel to Wisconsin Dells. Grand Lake is on the west side of the Park and while it definitely has tourist activities, it feels more like Minocqua, very rustic with amazing views of sparkling blue lakes with log “cabins” on the shore and mountains in the background.  We went to a Mexican restaurant and sat outside to enjoy the view.

When we got back, we had a visitor IN OUR CAMPSITE! He was not in any hurry to leave so we took pictures and chatted with all the other campers about how we all loved this campground where the moose just hang out with us all day. We joked that there was no need to go into the park, because we are seeing a lot more right from our campsites. Eventually, Mr. Gigantic Moose wandered into the next campsite. 

One last look at the amazing sunset in one direction…

And the Forest Fire (now called the Tonahutu Fire) in the other direction.  We could see helicopters dropping water onto the area. Don’t worry, I am zoomed in as far as my camera can zoom.

We stopped at the Colorado Welcome Center for lunch. Great view of the mountains here in Fort Collins. We are getting closer!

By now, the kids are fully impressed as we make our way up, up, up. 

Everywhere an animal was grazing, cars pulled over along the side of the road or slowed way down. We snagged this picture out the truck window.

Birds and chipmunks (or maybe they are ground squirrels) were eating cheetos out of peoples’ hands. The people were holding cheetos up in the air and these birds were swooping to grab them right out of their raised hands. Cool, but definitely not good for these poor birds.

This little guy did not hold still but I got him while he was munching a cheeto with his back turned.

We kept going higher and higher. I leaned in to the middle of the vehicle to “help” us stay away from the edge. The boys thought that was pretty funny.

Up above the treeline, there were only small plants and there were signs everywhere to stay on the path because it takes decades for the ground to recover from human disturbance. Many people at the viewing sights ignored the signs. Bad tourists!

This is a marmot. He was sunning himself on the rocks. The temperature up here was about 55 degrees, over 30 degrees cooler than it was before we drove in to the mountains. Quite a difference!

It feels like we are at the very top of the world. This sunbeam was very bright.

This is one of the least scary parts of the road. Many times, there wasn’t even a shoulder or stone wall next to the road and it went straight down!

We got to Grand Lake about 5 pm. We are still over 8000 feet above sea level. Look what is resting in the shade in the campsite across from us!! What a welcome to a great campground!

This campground is one to stay at if you are ever in the area near Grand Lake. Here is the sunset view from our campsite.

Obligatory flower picture. You will be seeing many more over the next days and week.