Green Jeep Bug and Bugling Elk

Just outside of Rocky Mountain National Park, we started what was probably the most challenging hike of the season. The trailhead was a few miles down a dirt road, and unmarked. We only found it because its coordinates were listed as a good place to start searching for a geocache. This cache contained one of the much sought after 2006 Green Jeep Travel Bugs. This item just had to be in our log, and a photo of the jeep, with the theme of "Adventure" would also give us an entry into this month's challenge.

Unfortunately, when entering the cache's coordinates into the GPS, the last two digits were transposed, and we did an extra mile at least climbing through boulder fields and bushwacking through dense underbrush and trees on the steep slopes of Palisade mountain. Cell phone service was restored at the summit, and thank goodness our day's savior, Ramon, was able to log into geocaching.com remotely to give us the proper coordinates. The first few photos in the web album (see link below) are from that hike.

Needing to slow the pace a bit, we head into Rocky Mountain National Park. The park has over 350 miles of hiking trails itself, and is home to elk, mule deer, moose, bighorn sheep, black bears, coyotes, cougars, eagles, hawks, marmot and more. Our timing was perfect to see large groups of elk coming down from the mountain to graze in the late afternoon in the meadows. Fall is also time for the elk rut, and we heard several males bugling in an attempt to gather a harem. The bugle indicates a bull's size and physical fiteness. Once he has his cows, the bull keeps them in line, herding them in the direction he wants them to go with warnings and bumps with his rack when necessary. Check out this informative article on the elk rut.

Check out the day's photos by clicking HERE.

Also by popular request here a couple videos of the day. Video Link