National Park Beast Extravaganza

Recently, Laura and I hiked up the Ute Trail in Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP).  We started by the Deer Mountain trailhead, hiked down to the Beaver Meadows area and then up to Trail Ridge Road, which had just opened for the season.  The plan was then to hitchhike back to our car. Here we are driving past one of the massive drifts that had to be cleared:

Shortly into our hike, we saw three coyotes in the distance moving through a meadow ahead of us.  A little further up the trail we saw elk lying down in the shade of the trees.  Laura spotted a baby elk amongst the grownups.  We watched as it went over to its mother and got itself some tasty milk.

>

Here they are walking away, post refreshment:

We did our best to thread our way past the elk, as they were close on both sides of the trail.  After a very strenuous snowshoe through the woods from 10,000 to 11,000 feet (apparently no one else had been on this trail yet), we emerged above the trees, onto the ridge, and found ourselves in marmot city.  This marmot was literally strolling towards us on the trail:

He would stop, look around, munch some grass, and then keep moving towards us.  Finally he decided to move off the trail, and did some awesome posing for our benefit.

I looked up and saw this other marmot nearby inspecting things from above:

I even saw one standing on its hind legs to check things out, but wasn't able to get a good picture.  Finally, we saw these elk kickin' it way up the mountain:

It was kind of surprising to me, because they were so far from the valley.

The week before we saw some super awesome elk by the side of the road between Estes Park and RMNP.  They had some nice racks!!!

This elk was on the opposite side of the road:

These stupid people had their kid pose right in front of the elk.  I was hoping for a bloody ending, but the elk just wanted to eat.  Had it been the fall and mating season, there may have been a different ending.  Both of these elk were photographed from the safety of a Geo Prizm.

Earlier in the day we saw this good looking elk in the park by the side of the road (though he definitely needs to get his rack game stronger):

We also saw this tasty grouse while hiking that day.  I probably could have captured it and had myself a delicious meal!!

Finally here are some ridiculous bighorn sheep we saw while our friend Anna was visiting:

We also saw a couple of babies at a different location, but they were too far away to photograph.

Beast sitings have been absolutely off the chart in the national park lately!  It is totally ridiculous!!  Tomorrow I plan to go looking for more marmots.  I really would like to see some babies, but it might be a little too early for that.