Wildlife in Grand Lake

I am pleased to report that we saw quite a bit of wildlife, especially while we were staying on the west side of RMNP.  On our way into Grand Lake, we found these fellas on the side of the road.  We thought they were goats until we asked a park ranger, who informed us that these are bighorn sheep!  And she was shocked that we saw these along a major road, so we were even more excited to have seen them.

Their horns weren't very big yet-she said that it takes about 10 years to get really big horns.

There were so many!














On our first morning in the park, we saw two moose hanging out by Coyote Valley Trail.  Josh was really looking to spot a moose on this trip, so he was especially pumped to see one so soon!





Here's a video of the kids talking about the moose.








Later that afternoon we were driving down the road from our cabin when we spotted a female moose with a baby.






So cute!










A little ways from them we saw a bull moose!






He chilled in this spot for about 4 hours.  We went to town and back and he was still there!







On our last morning in Grand Lake, we tried to take a trail and were surprised to find a ton of elk blocking our way.

These guys were posted up and I was too timid to try to shoo them away!

We saw a couple more crossing the trail we ended up going on.  Look in the background to see one.












One last baby moose and its mom after our hike.













We think that we may have seen more wildlife than typical due to the less-than-ideal weather we experienced while in Grand Lake.  At least, that's what we are telling ourselves :)  It was so awesome to get to see so many animals in their natural habitat and the kids really got into trying to spot them.  They loved carrying around their binoculars!

Grand Lake

We rolled into Grand Lake a little early, so we went down to check out the main area of town until our cabin was ready.  We have been through this city a couple of times and it is really cute, with boardwalks on both sides of the main street and tons of shops and restaurants.

Down by the lake.  Still rainy!!














Had to get some ice cream of course.











I have a picture of me from our honeymoon in front of this fire truck.  Thought it was cool to have one with the kids now!












Who needs nature when there is a big tractor to see??








Our first morning we got up and headed into the Rocky Mountain National Park.  Absolutely love this place!!  We started spotting wildlife right away.  I am going to do a separate post of animals we saw :)

Dave using his binocs to check out an elk.  (We may have thought this was a moose for a while...oops)

Hiking on Coyote Valley Trail.  Great scenery and we saw some (actual) moose!

At Adams Falls.

We hiked a bit past Adams Falls because a ranger told us to.  Glad we talked to him!

Our cabin.  It was super cute and perfect for us!








Thursday night we hung out at the arcade in Grand Lake and went to a city playground.  Friday morning we got up early yet again and went to do another trail in the national park.

Tried to go down this one and it was flooded over.  We were getting a little tired of the rain at this point!

Ike was still having some fun though.  Just kidding, I caught him at a good moment.  The kids are so over hiking.













After we packed up we drove over to Estes Park via Trail Ridge Road, which was a touch nerve-wracking for me.  Beautiful, but it was sure dangerous looking!  We are now hanging out on the east side of RMNP with Josh's parents and sister Emilee until Friday.