Rocky Mountain National Park

From the Black Hills we went down into Colorado and stayed in Fort Collins.  We found a nice KOA there and drove about an hour up to Rocky Mountain National Park outside of Estes Park.  We hit it just right to enjoy fall colors and the elk in full rut.  This bull elk was bellering/bugling trying to maintain his turf and harem.  There was another male elk that this guy chased off after taking him on in a fight.  The other elk lost one of his big long antlers in the tussle. 

We drove up to the Alpine Visitor center which sits at almost 13,000 feet.  There is a hiking path there that you can follow up to the very top of the mountain at almost 14,000 feet.  We didn't try it having not had much chance to adjust to the altitude we didn't want to get the headache and blue lips from altitude sickness.  We got to see and touch some snow and enjoy some beautiful fall colors in the mountains. 

Now we are in Colorado City -- a tiny town on I-25 in the southern part of the state.  We are heading into New Mexico next.