What a beautiful place! September 7-12th I had the opportunity to take a class in Estes Park. 15 students participated. Basically, we did real life work for the Rocky Mountain National Park Museum, the Estes Park Museum, and the Estes Park Public Library. We got to work with Archives collections, index oral histories, and do repairs and encapsulation on maps and blueprints.
We also learned a great deal of history about the town and the park. This is a picture of "Enos Mills" (actor portrayal), the father of Rocky Mountain National Park, telling us his story and what life was like in Estes Park in 1915.
In this photo I'm with some of my fellow ESU Librarian wanna-bes. The girl on my right is from Utah and a member of the church. We had a lot of fun talking during the week. (ESU has cohort classes in Portland, Denver and Salt Lake City as well as Kansas City and Emporia, so there were students from all over in our group there.)
One of the highlights for me was observing the elk in the park. The rut was just starting and I caught some video of bulls bugling. I also had a rather unnerving close encounter with an elk. We were walking through the woods to a class, and suddently came upon an elk next to the trail. He was less than 3 yards away. He didn't seem concerned about us, just looked up and kept chewing. We, however, kept moving. I did gather courage to turn around and snap a picture, when I felt safe enough to do so. Every year, Estes Park sees people gored by elks because they get too close. It's a challenge, because they are all over the town. They cross the highway regularly, and take over the golf course completely during the rut. You really have to keep your eyes open.
