Rocky Mountains... The Moose is on the Loose!

Three glorious days on the west side of Rocky Mountain National Park... We've been three times to this great place before, but never to this side. Rocky is a hiker's park, with hundreds of miles of trails, all interconnected and spiderwebby. We did a couple of great hikes, Coyote Valley, Lulu City (that's for you, Lisa), and the Two Utes Trail. ("The two what? What did you say? What the heck is a Ute? Oh sorry, the two yooooouuuuuuthezzzzz") This was a great one that we'd never done before; it started at the Alpine Ridge Center (alt: 11,800') and then went through four miles of tundra, changing into forest. We got to see several pikas, and Liz drove to the bottom of the trail and hiked up halfway with Izzie. Izzie has just - in the last week - turned into quite a hiker, carrying her own pack, finding the best rocks to climb on, and peeing behind trees.

Speaking of wildlife, we finally got to see the moose that all of those signs throughout Canada and Alaska said existed. First was a juvenile bull that was on a ridge above our campsite. Next, was a mother and calf (that's a big ol' baby) that were in our campsite! Finally, last night, we saw two enormous bulls (BFM's) that were - seriously - like every great pic you've ever seen, but bigger. Unfortunately, it was just after dark, and we didn't think it was a good idea to walk up to a 1500-pound moose and flash it in the face. That of course, put us in the minority, as the place soon filled up with morons, er, people, carrying infants, lashing cameras, and walking six feet from these two big bulls, who were starting to get seriously freaked out. We left before we had to see the ensuing carnage.