A Taste of the Rockies

The annual meeting of the American Dairy Science Association was in Denver, Colorado earlier this month. For once I got out of the hotel. But, believe it or not, I didn't take my camera (I never need it, because I never get out of the hotel...). My friend Kas was driving, so I used his camera to capture a few (hundred) photos of the scenery. We drove from Denver north to Estes Park, through the Rocky Mountain National Park on route 34 and came out near Moraine Park, then circled back to Denver. It was evening through most of this trip, so by the time we headed back it was dark and we didn't get to see the approach to Denver from the west. Still, we saw plenty of gorgeous country. Enjoy!

Kas and me at the Estes Park visitor center, just before we entered Rocky Mountain National Park.

Although it is a little hard to see, there are five mature bull elk in the right-center of this shot. I saw them closer, but couldn't get a photo at that point. They were huge and their antlers were still in velvet.

Looking down into Moraine Park.

We saw so many elk I couldn't keep track of a count. The sky really is bluer there because of the high altitude.

Did you know elk calves have spots just like fawns? I was within 50 yards of this herd of cows and calves and two juvenile males with spike antlers covered in velvet.

A little mule deer; we didn't see a ton of these, but there were a few here and there.

The highlight of my trip was seeing three moose in the Moraine Park, two bulls and a cow. The didn't seem that far away, but they must have been because most of my photos were really grainy.

Kas and Molly.

Me and Molly.

What a great way to end my trip to Colorado!