Close to Denver and Boulder, this is one of the most popular parks in the US, so much so that you have to book ahead to enter. I found it to be crowded and overhyped. It’s one of those parks that you can only really appreciate if you go hiking, although with the ever present peril of dangerous moose — the world’s tallest, largest and heaviest species of deer — solo hiking is iffy at best. In rutting season they often attack humans and injure more people than bears do. I happened to be there in rutting season, and you could hear the moose mating calls echoing around the hills. Walking a trail without a group of people for protection is not smart. The Fall colors of the trees were beautiful, the mountains too had a sort of desolate and austere appeal.
