Sunday, September 30, 2012

Going Hunting!

When we came down Mt. Evans, we stopped by the ticket booth and Brett got out of the van to talk to the lady there to find where to go see some elk since we didn't see any on the mountain.  So, after we ate our dinner we headed off in another direction hoping our search this time would be successful!!  You see, the McCoy men ~ young and older ~ are all hunters and we just had to see something. 
Note the hunter with his gun in the picture :o)
Jordan was excited, too!!  Unfortunately, he didn't have a gun :o)
Finally, we reached our first destination which I think was called Elk Meadow!
I love taking pictures of old buildings.
And another one.
There were three signs telling some very interesting facts about elk.
And the little men (and Grammy) had to get out of the van to see what the signs said and . . . . .
to feel the elk fur (hide) and kiss the elk!  Jordan is a trip and a half!!
If you click on this picture you'll see a rainbow above the mountain peak on the right!
Isn't that just beautiful????
We were patiently (? well maybe everyone wasn't too patient after a while ?) waiting here for a long, long time and didn't see anything that even came close to resembling an elk!  Finally, someone looked across the road up on the hill and there were two mule deer.  They are very red compared to the white tail in the East.
Do you see them?
After waiting here and it was starting to get dusk we decided to go to another place that someone told Brett about.  Actually, we went back and forth to these two places several times!!  Keep following the next post to see what to our wandering eyes did appear!!
 

Still Hunting And Very Successful This TIme!

Yep!  Caden still has his gun and Jordan was still wishing for one! Haha!!
 We had kind of given up hope of see any elk this particular evening, but while driving on the Interstate Brett looked up on a hillside near where we had seen the buffalo eariler in the day there were a couple of elk.  He turned off the exit and we drove out to where he saw them, but the road ended :o(  We saw some more mule deer though!
Another older building.  Who knows?  Maybe it's a hunting cabin!  Pretty neat whatever it is!
The other place Brett was told to go look for elk was a little park area.  We had already been here earlier and there was nothing but trees!!  The guys decided to go back and lo, and behold, there were probably around 30 or more elk here!!
Just what we waited all this time to see!!  It's like the elk was saying, "And just what are you looking at?"
They are some pretty big animals!!
They were in people's yards
and just grazing on the hillsides!
Oh, if I only had a gun :o)  Look at all of them here!
We were all so excited!!
This area was full of them, but you can't see too many for the trees!!
Some places had super high fences up and Dennis said he thought it was to keep the elk out!!
I'm sure they can be pretty destructive!!
 What a way to end our day seeing all these beautiful huge creatures!!
It was just an awesome day even though it was very long.  When we got back to our hotel that night it was a little after 9:00, but felt like it was 1 or 2 in the morning as we had been to the Denver Aquarium and ventured up Mt. Evans.  Needless to say before we got to our room the boys had conked out and were sound asleep in the van.  Tired, but oh, so worth it.  I'd do it again tomorrow it I could!!

Saturday, September 29, 2012

Dinner At the Bottom Of the Mountain

After we got down to the bottom of the mountain we decided to stop at the restaurant to have dinner.  They also had a big gift shop where I got some Christmas ornaments that say "Mt. Evans".
Inside the dining room there was this big statue of a mountain goat. 
The sign at the bottom of the entrance to Mt. Evans
Caden throwing stones in a little puddle
A lake near the restaurant
So picturesque

Mount Goliath

Mount Goliath was an area on the mountain
It looked so different here . . . . .
but pretty in it's own way!
This building had a lot of interesting facts inside about the area.
There's Brett coming back to the van.  Do you see him?

The Birthday Boy

Today was Jordan's 2nd birthday.  Here he is looking a little tired :o)



More Pretty Views

See the little lakes?
Looking up to the summit
Amazing
Another view of the lake where we stopped on the way up the mountain
Just beautiful

What's This Critter Called?

After we started our descent down Mt. Evans, we saw this critter on a rock!  We stopped to check it out.
It was making a very loud noise like it was a whistle!  Very interesting.  Not sure what it was.  Sort of looked like something from the groundhog family!

Thursday, September 27, 2012

The Summit of Mt. Evans

The drive up the mountain was only 14 miles and so beautiful!  When we got to the top we spotted a mountain goat wondering around the parking lot!
This crazy guy was trying to feed it a leaf of lettuce
and getting a little closer
and still closer, but the goat didn't want it!
It seemed pretty tame. . . . .
as I'm sure it's around people quite often if it hangs out there at the parking lot!
Caden enjoyed watching the goat even though he was cold!!!
Dennis was trying to get Brett, Karissa and the boys picture with her phone

Looking for something
They had the binocular type thingys for you to look out across to the other mountains
What a view out across there!!
 
There's the real mountain top!  Since we didn't have jackets we didn't walk up there!!
 
For some interesting information click on the picture below!
Wow!!
He's still there!!
 
Rather mangy looking!
And these three got back in the van as it was pretty chilly up there!