You are very welcome to come along, but just know that our Jeep only fits 2 people. :waving3::airplane:

On Thursday we saw elk in the same place as on Wednesday, and a few deer, which we rarely see, were near the entrance. It was another warm and mostly sunny morning with above normal temperatures, but with wind and snow flurries, and a change in the weather were coming.

We also saw this small herd of elk west of Sheep Lakes, and the scene was so beautiful in the morning sun it seemed like a fairy tale to me. It would be nice if they were in this part of the park more often because the background is so much more interesting than the red-twigs are.

Happy Valentine's Day, Dahling! :heartpumpred::heartpumppink::heartpumppink::heartpumpred::heartpumppink::heartpumppink::heartpumpred::heartpumpred:

It took a month. We weren't sure I could do it, but I came up with a way to handle 800 videos a day and still do the other things that I enjoy. I loved seeing the comings and goings, the night photography and I really treasured some of those squirrel interactions.

Thanks for the challenge, Anke! I make my whole book in the past tense, but almost never put in anything about an earlier time frame, but I was glad I did this one. It made me hopeful. :giggle4:

Economists were making pretty dire predictions about Trump's changes in our government, and we talked about how we'd be fine no matter what. I thought it was the perfect time to look back at 2020. We didn't have the best memories, but we did manage to find the good in all of it.

We enjoyed watching the sun melting away the ice and snow layer all week, but also knew more snow was coming soon. Temperatures were above normal all week, and the snow was melting fast in a lot of places, yet there were very few openings in the river's ice inside the park.

They said gusty winds, rain and snow for Wednesday, and we saw Longs Peak shrouded with lovely pink clouds at sunrise. Then not much further, three moose moved off the road and made their way up a really steep, rocky slope. The first moose sighting for us east of the Divide.

On Friday, before we headed off the mountain we drove just to Sheep Lakes so I could get one more look at the pink clouds. The elk were in the valley, for an extra reward. We were still packed and on the road by 8 am. I texted Keely and told her we planned to be back in November.

Clouds were dark and the sun was brilliant. The lighting was gorgeous! I would describe the yellows as acidic, and the lighting reminded me of one other time I saw a similar thing and wished so much at the time that I could get photos of it. On that day the clouds were almost black.

Thanks so much!

During below zero days I watched bunnies feeding at night on videos. They ate standing up, and you could see the stress as their ears were pulled back or very big to listen to the great horned owls. When I was out in the dark setting the camera, they were loud and creepy close-by.

On Tuesday you saw an elk on the hillside as we were leaving, and we knew the herd wouldn't be grazing in the 40 mph wind, so we stopped for photos. I made the park ranger laugh and up at Deer Junction I kept talking to the magpie. He liked the attention and stayed until we left.

I love love love what you wrote.

Thanks for the challenge! #8 is represented by Notchtop, architecture-ish. 9 & 10 are those mountains, also on the left. 11 & 12 are water & waterfalls on the right. #4 is wildlife in the middle. Elk and parrot not too similar, but I see it. :giggle4:

On Monday we made a quick trip into RMNP right at sunrise and before breakfast. We saw 11 elk and there was snow over the ice on the river. Our timing put Notchtop Mountain in warm sun with no snow, and contrasted with other peaks. The river was more open by our cabin.

Thanks for the challenge, Sylvia! I have a very hard time with flowers in the winter, but your recipe was fun.

For the third of three months in a row, we were back at our cabin, but in the few weeks since our last visit, we were seeing signs of a hostile takeover of the government. As we got to Estes Park, we saw a forest fire burning and wind gusts over 50 mph. It was a "controlled" burn.

Thanks! I've use Booksmart app and Blurb. I like 440 pages for the year in each one, and they do that.