Rocky Mountain National Park

 From South Dakota we headed west into Wyoming then south to just north of Denver to get the car serviced. It turns out there are very few Lexus dealers near national parks. Once I realized just how close we were to Rocky Mountain National Park we decided to spend a day on our way back north to Grand Teton and Yellowstone.

The drive to Rocky Mountain takes you through Estes Park Colorado which is a beautiful place. I plan on taking another trip there someday but just a bit later in the year when the Elk runt is happening. I see so many videos from there of bull elk.

 

Rocky Mountain is one of the busier parks so you have to get a timed ticket to enter and if you want to drive Bear Lake Road you need a special timed ticket that covers that too. The tickets they sell far in advance were all sold out but they offer more tickets the night before and we were able to get one of those.

For me the highlight of Rocky Mountain was the elk and we didn't have to wait long to see them. As soon as we turned on Bear Lake Road there was a herd next to the road.

A bit further past the elk herd we found a family of mule deer, a doe and 2 fawns. I stood in the rain for 20 minutes trying to get good photos but they refused to pose for me and even look my way.

Next we found this elk busy eating by the side of the road, close enough to get some good portraits. Now worries on getting too close, I was shooting these from the other side of the road using a telephoto lens.

Not sure if she's smiling at me or this is her "get that camera out of my face" look.