Day 34: State Forest State Park, CO

Day 34:  Fri, 7/15:  Drive to State Forest State Park, CO (Near Walden, CO in the north)

Today, we had a pancake breakfast and a leisurely morning.  Sam fished briefly in the river in our RV park.  Then we showered, went to the grocery store and picked up our new spare tire for the RV.  Let’s hope we have no more flat tires during this trip—3 is enough!  We then drove to Ranger Lakes in State Forest State Park, near Walden, CO.  Walden is the “moose capital of Colorado,” with almost 600 of them living in the state park.  We drove along some steep, windy roads along the Poudre River.  We stopped the RV and watched some advanced kayakers shoot class IV rapids on the river right by the side of the road.  We saw some deer and great vistas and arrived to Ranger Lakes.  We looked in the meadows bordering the campground where we were told a mother moose and her calf were seen in the morning.  They were not there so we rode our mountain bikes about ½ mile to beautiful Ranger lakes next to our campground.  We looked for moose there too but didn’t see any.  So after riding back to our RV, Sam kept riding along the Gould Trail 2.5 miles to the Moose Visitor Center in order to find moose.  After stopping there and turning back around to head back to camp, it started to rain.  Then, while riding his bike, he saw a moose calf in a small meadow about 20 yards away.  The beautiful calf started trotting through the meadow as he was riding along the trail.  Then while riding another 100 yards on the trail, Sam saw the mother moose standing on the trail about 30 yards in front of him.  As Sam kept riding on along the trail, the mother moose trotted the same direction on the same trail.  Sam slowed down his riding but kept going forward as did the moose.  It was a great moose encounter for him and he was really happy and excited.  When back in camp, he shared his moose news so we all drove in the car about 10 miles to Cameron Pass—the best place to see moose in the area.  Instead of seeing moose, we saw three beautiful, large bucks and one female deer along the road.  We went back to camp, ate dinner and then walked to the meadow at the edge of our camp.  Sarah spotted a female moose about 100 yards away!!!  We enjoyed watching her with our three pairs of binoculars.  Sarah was excited to have found the moose we all got to see.  Then, Sarah and Sam walked up to the upper Ranger Lake and fished, each catching one fish.  It was incredible how many fish were jumping out of the water eating flies.  They were doing full body breaches!  There are so many mosquitos here so we both wore long sleeve shirts and pants (it’s not cold during the evening here!), hats, and serious mosquito spray.  Andrea and Ryan walked up to meet us at the lake after an hour of fishing and they too were impressed with how many fish were jumping on the lake for food.   We came to the moose capital and we saw moose today!   We look forward to moose sightings and fishing tomorrow. 

Ranger Lakes in State Forest State Park near Walden, CO

Sarah fishing wearing her mom's long sleeve shirt.  Look at the fish jumping in the background!