Elk bugling resonates through Rocky Mountain National Park

Standing next to a birch shedding its yellow leaves in a sprinkling of fall foliage last week, pre-dawn mist hovered over the heart of Moraine Park, shrouding the bull elk that were eerily piercing the crisp air with high-pitched bugles. 

Peering through the dim light and mist, the steady sun rose slowly, unveiling the scene.

Three big bulls in different areas of the park warned each other with these squeals to stay away from their harem of cows with which they intended to breed. Growing light methodically burned off the mist.

A coyote meandered the meadow edge. Magpies screeched from the tops of pines. Golden-yellow aspen dotted the surrounding mountainsides and birches and alders the meadow edge.

This is what makes fall the best time to visit Rocky Mountain National Park.

And sunrise, with a cup of steaming coffee, is the best time to be on the edge of Moraine Park, Horseshoe Lake or Upper Beaver Meadows, waiting for the show to begin.

Morning, rather than evening, is when there are far fewer people with which to contend, when the ghost-like mist rises from the Big Thompson River, when the aspen’s glow seems brightest.

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