Our excuse to go to Colorado in September was to attend the Jazz Festival in Vail, joining up with California friends there. We went early to tour through Rocky Mountain National Park after the summer crowds simmered down. The elk were enjoying browsing the local golf course and even some of Estes' Park municipal landscaping. One male bugled his harem across a local bike path I happened to be on early one morning.
Rocky Mountain National Park was splendid--still some alpine flowers out and not totally frosty, but suggestions of fall in the air. We drove to the top of Mt. Evans and took it slow at 14,130' on a cool, but bright day. Mountain goats and mountain sheep greeted us along the roads. We also passed the northern most grove of Bristlecone Pines at about 13,000'.
After the splendid jazz festival, we headed south to another national park, less well know--Black Canyon of the Gunnison. A 2,000' deep ditch was carved over eons by the Gunnison River through metamorphic rock with dramatic diking running through the rock. The canyon bottom is very impenetrable even today. Driving up a mesa in pinyon pine country, one suddenly comes upon the edge of this canyon for a jaw-dropping experience. Worth a visit!
