I left off getting caught up with Day 4 here.

This is the spot where we ended up camping the fourth night.

I talked about the truck having problems climbing the mountain out of Steamboat Springs. The whole next day I kept hearing some kind of noise—think about a card stuck on a bicycle and you hear the tap-tap-tap as the wheels go around. Dan could never hear the sound but I heard it a lot on that road that we were on the day before—especially when we were near a rock wall that seemed to reflect the sound. I’m trying to remember this now but I think the sound disappeared when the truck shifted into the highest gear. But it came back when the truck shifted back. This had me worried about finishing out this trip. Our plan was to be in Boulder for a couple of days—I was going to be at the Schacht 50th Anniversary weekend and Dan was going to go mountain exploring—but maybe not if the transmission was failing.

We left the campground to go on a hike. There was a large herd of elk in the valley. We had heard them bugling the night before.

I’ve looked on a map and I can’t remember where we hiked. It may have been to Bear Lake, but I’m not sure. We had to park quite a distance down the road and started our hike on the road.

When we got to the trail it went around this meadow before getting into the forest.

Eventually the trail left the meadow/marsh and started uphill.

We couldn’t help but notice a lot of dead trees throughout the park. I don’t know if it’s beetle kill like in California.

The trail took us above that lake.

The dead trees were very obvious but there was a lot of lively color as well.

We got to the turn-around or go-back-another-way point at Big Thompson Creek.

We drove back towards the campsite and stopped to watch the elk herd.

It was interesting to watch the body language of the elk and relate that to what we know about domestic livestock. The bulls were aggressive towards each other and tried to keep their females nearby. Not all the females cooperated with that plan though.

There were warnings about keeping away from the elk and staying out of the meadow. It is obvious that some people didn’t heed those warnings. There was a crowd all around the edge of the area where the elk were grazing.

We switched campsites when we got back to the campground. I don’t remember why—maybe becaause there was no neighbor.

This was our last full day in the Park. Tomorrow we’d be headed to Boulder.