Drive through Rocky Mountain NP to Moraine Park
Features
About this place
The views in Rocky Mountain National Park are great, but sometimes it's fun to take them out of the equation in order to focus on the other senses.
In this specific case, the adventure is focused on the sounds. At night in September and October you can expect to hear the eerie bugling from Elk reverberating around the mountains. Even after an hour or two I was still getting goose-bumps listening to them.
Start your adventure at the Fall River entrance to the park, driving slowly and with the windows down to hear for elk as you may pass by a gang and not even see them. Feel free to park at Sheep Lakes info station or at West Horseshoe Park, there are often many elk near both parking lots. I also recommend saving some time to continue on to Moraine Park. You can reach it by driving to Deer Ridge Junction at the end of Fall River Rd (US 34) and taking a left on US 36. Continue straight almost all the way to the Beaver Meadows entrance until you see Bear Lake Rd on the right, where you will turn. Your destination is a small parking lot to the right about 1.75 miles down Bear Lake Rd.
To get the most of this whole experience, I suggest settling in to each lot, rolling the windows down, and turning off all lights and noise. As an added bonus, entry to the park is free after a certain time depending on the season, so you may not even have to buy a day pass to experience this adventure!