Rocky Mountain NP first visit

I came into the park from the southwest entrance this time.  Quite a bit different feel than the front range.   Found a nice camp spot, paid my money, threw a couple personal items on my site, and headed out for a hike.

One of the rangers at the visitor center suggested Lone Pine Lake.  An 11 mile total hike, but I was up for it having a couple days of rest for my feet and knees.  What a pretty hike!  Started off with a large lake (Grand Lake) then a nice roaring waterfall, than beautiful open meadows and wetlands, and finally up, up, and more up to the snow and the lake.

I was a little worried about timing, so headed back down right away.  I was pooped and couldn't wait to get back to my campsite to put my feet up and relax.  I saw some nice wildlife on the way back to my campsite.  Lots of elk, a bull moose crossed just in front of me, and also a cow moose.  Score!  What a lucky day.  I would have stopped to take more pics, but was just feeling worn out.

Imagine my disbelief when I got to my site and someone else had set up all their gear in my site!  I was very irate and went to find a ranger to give me a hand dealing with the people.  I eventually decided since I was so tired (and I didn't want to wait the half hour for them to take their stuff down), and there were plenty of empty sites, I would just pick a new site to stay in.  Grrrrr. 
I nice gentleman who had overheard the conversation with the ranger approached me and said there was a nice site next to him that was open.  So off I headed to my new site and started setting up my tent.

Imagine my surprise when I looked up and there were 5 elk cows wandering and grazing towards my campsite.  I started keeping an eye on them because they just kept getting closer and closer.   I sat down at my picnic table for some dinner, but eventually one of the cows led the group too close for comfort.  I really wanted to keep the picnic table between myself and the elk.  She seemed calm, but cautious.  They wandered around our campsites for over an hour grazing and people watching.  Oddly they all were licking the fire grates.  I joked to myself they like grilled hotdogs too. 😁

The next morning, as I was heading out, I noticed some bull elk in the campground, so I pulled over for some more pictures.  They seemed even calmer than the cows, and grazed towards the people who were taking pictures.   Still made me nervous to be so close to them.

I went up to the Alpine visitor center and made it it time for a tundra flower walk with a ranger.  He took us out onto the tundra (it was really cold!) And we searched and identified over a dozen plant species.  Really cool experience learning about survival in such a harsh environment.

I finished the day with a two mile hike up to Chasm Falls.  Just three of us the entire time, it was nice to escape the crowds I had been dealing with most of the day.