Over the holiday weekend we finally made the trip to Rocky Mountain National Park. Our good friend Amy was visiting for the weekend, thus giving us a great excuse to finally make the drive up. We started on our way around 8:30 and were at the park’s west entrance around 11. We made a quick stop at the Kawuneeche visitors center for some information and then continued on our way toward a trailhead that would take us to Adam’s Falls.

Before we could even make it to our trail, we stumbled upon a couple of Moose who were grazing right off the side of the road. This was the first time I have ever seen Moose, and it was on the top of my list of things to find for the day. I was astonished that my first goal was met so quickly and easily. Throughout the rest of the day, we only managed to see a glimpse of another Moose after that. So I guess we were a little lucky to find these two.

The hike to Adam’s Falls was a fairly simple one, measuring .3 mile each way. The only difficult part about it was the constant changing altitude, but we survived it with no problems. These waterfalls were wonderful and all of the varying colors of leaves provided the perfect backdrop. I took lots of pictures of this area, but it was very hard to capture the multiple stages of the falls and the twists and turns that lie between them as the crystal clear water winds through the rocks.

Another highlight of the trip, at least for me, was the drive on Trail Ridge Road, which is the highest paved continuous highway in the United States. This road is closed for the winter and even still has high snowpacked banks along the sides of the road that had to be cutout. I wanted to wait for this road to open before going to Rocky Mountain National Park, as it is the only way to get from one side of the park to the other. Originally I planned to spend as much time on the east side of the park as we did on the west, but by the time we got there we were hungry and ready to head back.

Before leaving the park, we did get some of our closest moments with multiple groups of Elk. At times, we were probably within twenty yards of them. The largest groups we saw were near the Sheep Lakes, where I was actually hoping to see some Big Horns, but no luck this time. However, the Elk were a pleasant surprise, as I don’t think I had seem them this close before. Plus with the backdrop of the trees and mountains I was able to get some good pictures of them.

There are many more pictures of us, the animals, and the landscape in this photo gallery.