Since we're staying on the West side of Rocky Mountain National Park in Grand Lake, CO most of the hikes available to us (under 10 miles in length) without driving a huge distance are subalpine...within forests and meadows, not breaking above the treeline. And boy, there are some pretty forests and meadows around here!
The day we hiked the
Lulu City trail it had rained heavily the night before, giving everything a fresh, glistening, drippy, rain forest feel in the morning light and the animals were out in force.
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| Just minutes into the trail we encountered a deer, setting our expectations high! |
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In the morning a good place to find grazing moose is right along the edge of a meadow.
The bonus here was the baby moose behind the tree! |
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| Close up of the cute baby moose! |
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| This was the first time we had seen a young marmot, along with an adult. |
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There is very, very little left of the mining town of Lulu City,
but it sat along the banks of this branch of the Colorado River. |
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| One of many meadows among these foothills of Rocky Mountain National Park. |
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| Adult marmot... |
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| Young marmot. |
Another day we hiked the Onahu Creek and Green Mountain trails. This 8 mile loop took us gently up and over the hillside through open lodgepole pine forest, along Onahu Creek, and alongside Big Meadow. Though we heard of moose sightings from other hikers along the trail, we never saw any ourselves on this day.
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| Lovely Onahu Creek. |
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| Fungus among us. |
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| Big Meadow. |
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| At one time the occupants of this cabin had a spectacular view. |
Beautiful hikes! How fun to spot the baby moose.
ReplyDeleteLove the marmot photos! We also have never seen a baby one. It's very cute :)
ReplyDeleteLovely hiking in a beautiful area - thanks for sharing! :-)
ReplyDeletenice pics of a great place...
ReplyDeleteDefinitely the advantage to the west side is the moose. Seems like they are only seen on that side. We saw several on our two trips to the west side. I guess it is the wet areas and streams. Everyone we saw was near water.
ReplyDeleteThe marmots are really out in force all over the park, especially up at the high altitudes.
Glad you are enjoying yourselves. I hope you get over to the east side to visit!
Stunning! Do you not love the marmots? They're all over Bend, shoveling food into their mouths. Cute, just cute. Great looking hikes.
ReplyDeleteFungus among us... teehee. Great pictures as always!!!
ReplyDeleteLove you!
Chantal
Beautiful! Love the baby moose!
ReplyDeleteThe west is beautiful period but you've got to see the East as well :)
ReplyDeleteNever seen a marmot so hope to see one. The pictures are lovely!