Aspen Explosion Hike

Another long-overdue post, but this hike was too phenomenal to leave out. Last Fall (yeesh...) we headed up to Estes Park to witness the changing of the Aspen leaves we had heard so much about. We chose a beautiful day to hike and the colors were more vibrant than we imagined. Already looking forward to next year.

A small gathering of Aspens on the mountainside stands out from miles away.
Beautiful viewsA much larger grove
The view from inside the giant grove
At the next clearing, as we approached our lakeside lunch spot, we came across this guy.
The other major attraction in the park that weekend was the annual bull elk bugling. We joined a group of spectators above a field to watch the males protect their domains, and although we weren't witness to any antler-to-antler combat, we heard plenty of their screechy bugling. (If you haven't heard what this sounds like and are interested, this site has an automatic looping audio clip of it: elk sounds!)