Rocky Mountain National Park, Jackson, WY

Rocky Mountain National Park offers everything to a person who loves the mountains of the West. It offers huge peaks, extreme elevations, tundra, wildlife, lakes, hikes, bears, oh my. We attempted to experience it all. The drive into Estes Park is the only downside, but after navigating the narrow canyon and using every slow vehicle pull out, we were in our RV park just a mile from the visitor center. Our first to do was to get our oil changed in the Jeep, so we spent the first day in Denver at the dealership and then doing the brewery tour at the Coors factory. After going through the Budweiser factory, we can recommend the Coors tour as better and more informative. With fresh oil in the Jeep, we decided to hike into Ouzel Falls. The hike was on the easier side of our normal hikes, but the scenery was great and the water fall was cool. I think I'm spoiled by the big water falls we've seen around the country. Since it is the middle of September, the elk are in the rut and we had big bulls and their groups of cows around what seemed every corner, even in town. We drove into the park to watch the elk at Moraine Park. The area is a big valley where the elk congregate and the bulls fight to keep their harems. We watched two massive bulls bugle and fight over a group of about 20 cows. We decided to spend a lazy day driving the Trail Ridge road to the Alpine visitor center. The road crests at 12,183 feet. At the elevations above ~11,000 feet, the landscape is tundra, which is one of my favorites. Our last day in the park was spent watching the elk for about an hour and then hiking to 2 of the higher elevation lakes, Loch Lake and Mills Lake. The lakes were fantastic and worth every mile. On our way out of Estes Park, we had a bit of a traffic jam as a herd of elk decided to camp out at an intersection and eat the grass. We enjoyed our time in Estes Park and we are already planning to return during the same time of year so we can watch the elk.