Moraine Basin Christmas Trip

So here is another one of those catch up posts. Before Christmas we decided to take a trip up to Estes Park to see all the pretty Christmas decorations. They normally decorate Main Street and it is so festive. Well, we get all the way up there and there is not one Christmas decoration up. Not a single wreath, light or piece of holly. Bummer.

So instead we went into Rocky Mountain National Park and had a little impromptu nature exploration.

We saw LOTS of animal tracks. The kids loved this. We had a great time trying to identify them and follow them to see where the animal was going.

Elk Track

Feline Tracks, Maybe Mountain Lion?

Of course Caleb's favorite, scat. This being Elk scat.

Moraine Basin in the winter. The Big Thompson River was frozen solid in this location.

These little guys are hard to see in this picture. They are mouse tracks. We followed them into a big bush by the river's edge.

This is a Stellar's Jay. There are lots of these birds in Rocky Mountain Park. We get Blue Jays at our feeders at home. But the Stellar's Jay prefers the higher altitudes and Coniferous Forests in the mountains.

Here's a Magpie. They are actually quite a colorful bird. But that's hard to see in this picture. They have black and white and a pretty bright blue. Their tail feathers are very long and showy.

Here's Caroline. The whole experience tuckered her out. The boys on the other hand were quite happy to stay outside as long as we let them.

I love this picture. Caleb called me over and said, "Look mama. I'm like the tree." At first I could not figure out what he meant. Then I realized he was bent over just like the tree was. Too cute.
We had such a nice day, even though we saw no Christmas decorations. To tell you the truth, God's creation is more beautiful anyway.