I had told Susan that I would leave the camera gear behind so that our anniversary "date" didn't turn into a full-blown photo shoot, but at the very last minute, she suggested we bring our gear since you never know what you'll see. As you can see from the pictures, we're glad we brought along our gear.
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| View near the Alpine Visitors Center on Trail Ridge Road |
Trail Ridge Road had only been open for about a week, but there still wasn't as much snow up there as we've seen in previous years. We drove pretty much straight through, but as we rounded a curve near the Far View Curve overlook we had to get on the brakes because of a
White-tailed Ptarmigan on the road. It was fun to see one with some of its winter plumage still visible. There was very little traffic, so we stopped to consider the question of why did the ptarmigan crossed the road. :-)
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| White-tailed Ptarmigan |
After a few minutes we headed on down, deciding to keep going until we got to the areas on the west side where we might see
moose.
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| Moose country on the west side (see moose just right of center) |
As always, we keep an eye out for other cars pulled over, and after passing by some people looking at deer or elk, we finally saw people observing a distant moose, so we got out and wandered around for a bit, shooting pictures.
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| Moose |
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| Mike "shooting" a moose |
Then we heard another group of people excitedly talking about a moose baby and our ears and eyes perked up. Soon we got some distant views of a cow moose and her calf. An off-duty park employee told us the calf was only 6 days old!
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| Moose cow and its 6 day old calf |
There was also a yearling hanging around, mostly likely the mama's. At one point the cow aggressively chased away the yearling. Soon the moose show was over and we turned around to head up high on Trail Ridge to take in the sunset.
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| Moose cow chasing its yearling away |
But the moose show wasn't over. After we got back to the switchbacks on the west side before Milner Pass, Susan spotted a moose in the trees in an "island" formed by the switchback. Again, traffic was almost non-existent, so we stopped to observe and photograph him from the road.
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| Moose at the switchback |
When he disappeared into the trees, we drove on up the road and as we rounded the curve, the moose had wandered out onto the road and began moving down the road in front of us, rather than heading back into the woods. We had never seen a moose this high above the wetland parks on the west side, and never one on the road like this.
For several minutes we waited, hoping he would head back into the woods, but he seemed indecisive, especially when a car came from the opposite direction. We decided to leave, hoping he would find his way off the road.
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| Moose on the road |
After a quick stop at Far View Curve we drove on to stop at Rock Cut for a few minutes, but a lot of clouds had moved in and Longs Peak was fully or partially obscured by clouds.
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| View from Far View Curve |
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| View from Rock Cut |
At Rock Cut we got to see our first
pikas of the year, and Susan enjoyed shooting pictures of them.
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| A terminally cute Pika poses for Susan's camera |
Getting back in the car, we decided to finish up at the spectacular Forest Canyon Overlook. We hung out here as the sun went down with some very dramatic light and clouds.
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| Gorgeous rays of light from the setting sun |
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| Great colors and dramatic clouds |
As we drove down in the dark, we both marveled out how much wild and scenic beauty we can see on a half-day excursion into Rocky!
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| Longs Peak in the distance |
This was just about a perfect anniversary date, and we've decided to have a large print made of our favorite sunset picture from the evening. Happy 9th Anniversary to us! :-)
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| Anniversary sunset at Forest Canyon Overlook |
