Thursday, May 29, 2014

A Few More Photos Before Work Days

Just some of the sight-seeing and stuff I've done the last couple of days. There are two videos below so I hope they stream well. :-)

A small "moose jam" on the road. Tour bus is not visible in this photo!

Who - me???

A close-up of her winter coat. Kinda scraggly!





Zuni & her new "friend". . .

Video below - enjoy!
Zuni after a hard day chasing chipmunks and chewing up the shoe box. :-)




Undercover butterfly. . . below unfurled.





Aspen budding out - beautiful.
One of the early settlements on our side of the park. Formerly a fish camp getaway, now a place for tourists to visit and school children to learn about the early life of the settlers and how to take care of our park.

One o our volunteers dressed as "impact monster"! She helps teach the children to pack-in/pack-out, leave no trace, respect and care for the animals, etc.

An un-anchored, "bear-proof" trash can got mauled by a bear the other night. The trash can was actually not so round when the ranger found it in the morning and Yogi ate everything except the beer cans!

The Coyote Valley trail is still a little inundated by snowmelt!
I kind of started a moose jam when I was the first to spot this mama and her calf this morning. Before long she had quite a gang of well-behaved tourists watching her and her baby.


Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Late May in RoMo

Good afternoon everyone! It is Tuesday, May 27 and I am on my first set of days off. Visitation at the campground has been dismal mimicking the weather! Rain, snow, sleet, ice, fog and freezing temperatures! Anything but sunshine until late yesterday afternoon.

Jep and I spent the first week in the campground removing old ashes from the fire pits, raking the sites to get rid of general "crud" and I (especially) loved cleaning and organizing the office area. Now that I write about it I realize I've not taken any pictures of the buildings, etc. so I'll hop to it later today or tomorrow. Jep went to pick up Renae Saturday in Denver and now we are all settling down to "normal" for the season.

Before last night (Memorial Day) we only had 13 campsites filled at the most. Last night we had 17! Of course, 8 of those sites were taken by an NPS trail crew but we'll take any and all visitors 'cause it has been so quiet. It was such a wonderful change late yesterday afternoon when the sun came out, campers started rolling in and . . . cue the moose!

Other things going on so I will remember when I'm old and senile: Alyssa has a physical therapist and all is well in Sequoia, Jacklynn is madly in love with Jack (Yea!), Keith and Joanne are settling in Oregon (yea!), Stu (backcountry volunteer at RoMo) says "hi" to Ken and Linda and, by the way, are they coming back to RoMo to work?, we've had a lot of visitors from Holland in the campgrounds, Happy Birthday to Mom, Judy, Martha, Heather & Raymond!, and life is sweet. Praying for Connie & Max, my wonderful sister, brother & mom & friends.  So here are a few photos from the last 10 days or so:

I'll call this bull moose Bullwinkle. He usually comes through the campground from the Beaver Pond area to the north towards the Holzworth site just to our south in the morning and makes the reverse trip in the evening. He usually always goes right past Jep and Renae's site!





Ha! I'm just showing off how nice the zoom is on this camera!


Canada visitors. . .


Is this my best profile?


Sign at the historic Grand Lake Lodge, built in 1920.


Grand Lake Lodge resident. :-)



Despite this temporary sunshine at the AVC sleet pounding on the car windows woke me from a nap and I made my way quickly back to Timber Creek Campground!

Scenic vista on the way up to Alpine VC

I was looking forward to having a cup of hot chocolate but there were no services available except the pit toilets. Too much snow and still-frozen water lines!




Memorial Day afternoon and the sun came out! This is the mountain vista that I awake to every day. Sigh . . .

I think this is horsetail grass growing at the edge of one of our campsites. The area is very marshy - the favorite of moose with all the new willow to munch on.

Much to the delight of our campers this female moose and (I think) a yearling (below) wandered through the campground last evening. Lots of photos taken and a camper from Illinois got to see her first moose ever! (No, not me. Someone else. I chased my first moose when I was 18 in Baxter State Park in Maine - eons ago, huh!)

The yearling got distracted by something lovely smelling at the picnic table. Our trail crew had just been there so perhaps one of the guys sitting there smelled lovely to her. She spent a few moments sniffing and licking the table.



Lest she be forgotten, Zuni was mugging for the camera a few days ago. Taking a sunbath and cleaning her tail. :-)





Posing with her "plaque" - the one I found in a thrift shop in Cortez, Colorado.

Saturday, May 17, 2014

The Wait was Worth It!

I'm not going to write much 'cause I'm a little tired. Yesterday I spent my last day in Grand Junction with Gary and Joan and their son Rich, daughter-in-law Deb and granddaughter Sam (who had just finished her freshman year at college). It was a surprise meeting as I was out shopping at Hobby Lobby and spotted Joan and Gary getting into their car there, too! How nice to see them again!

We went to the Olive Garden and visited for a good long time. Then we parted ways and I went for a nice long drive and hike through the Colorado Monument. Joan and Gary had taken me there more than a year ago, but I needed a walk so here are some of the photos:











Secree Squirrel
Waiting out the weather before driving to Rocky Mountain (which I will call RoMo from here on) was the best idea ever! I am enjoying free WiFi and electricity at the Elk Creek Campground just outside the park tonight, but tomorrow will shovel the snow from my campsite at Timber Creek in the park and hope that the electricity works! Jeb and Renae's site electric does not work and there was no way to test mine today. Fingers crossed!! I met my boss Jennifer and she showed me around a little bit. While I was at the visitor center everyone was asking if they would see moose, so enjoy the photos below.
The drive to RoMo - Plenty of snow in the mountains!


Cue the Moose!

Cue the Elk!