Stephen Meyers

stephenmeyers@coloradoan.com

ROCKY MOUNTAIN NATIONAL PARK — Up here at 12,000 feet, the Big Dipper looks close enough to reach up and grab.

The tranquil sky, filled with thousands of bright stars we’re not used to seeing in light-polluted Fort Collins, dances above our heads as we stargaze from Trail Ridge Road.

A shooting star zips across the black sky; a quiet stillness hovers in the air as lodgepole pine and aspen trees dream.

Only hours before did thousands of tourists — from across the U.S. and abroad — flock to the country’s third-busiest national park. The parking lot at Bear Lake fills by 8 a.m. Anxious hikers pack shoulder-to-shoulder in a shuttle to the trailhead. Cameras click when a deer or elk crosses the road, bringing traffic to a stop.

But visit Rocky Mountain National Park at night, and a different experience awaits.

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Nature all to yourself

What if I told you there was a time and place you could visit Rocky Mountain National Park and see a herd of 100 elk without also seeing 100 people?

You’d say I was dreaming. No way is that possible in this park, where a record 4.1 million people visited in 2015.

But go to the park at night, and you won’t compete for precious side-of-the-road space to photograph Rocky’s most prized animal.

Tuesday night, Coloradoan photographer Austin Humphreys and I arrived to the park at 7:30, in time to catch a stunning sunset from the Forest Canyon overlook on Trail Ridge Road. A group of eight of us watched the orange and pink blaze, before Austin and I raced to the Alpine Visitor Center in search of elk.

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About a dozen young cows milled about near the parking lot, licking salt and not giving a care in the world as we photographed them from the concrete path. Cool, we thought; that was fun.

Then we turned around.

More than 100 elk had crossed Trail Ridge Road and walked toward us along the ridge. They weren't more than 40 feet away.

Calves and yearlings closely followed their mothers, barking high-pitched squeals. The group talked to each other; chirps and mews between bites of grass.

Silhouetted by the falling sun and pink clouds, the scene was one of the most beautiful and serene I’d seen in the park. Other than a hiker above us on the Alpine Ridge Trail, no one but Austin and I saw this piece of nature.

Stars and more stars

The main attraction of a night in the park is the stargazing. While Rocky Mountain isn’t designated as an International Dark Sky Park like the Western Slope’s Black Canyon National Park, the sky still pops with thousands of twinkling stars.

And at just over an hour away from Fort Collins, it’s easy to escape the lights of the city and watch the star show from Trail Ridge Road.

Bundled up (the temperature quickly dropped to 45 degrees when the sun went down), we gaze at the stars from the Lava Cliffs, just below the road’s highest point at 12,183 feet elevation. From here, we feel like we are in a planetarium. Austin photographs the Milky Way, shooting 30-second exposures from the camera mounted on a tripod.

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From Trail Ridge, we descend to Moraine Park, taking in the Milky Way as it towers over the Big Thompson River as midnight looms. Nearby, hundreds of campers sleep in their cozy sleeping bags, the smoky smell of campfires still lingering through the campground.

In just a few short hours, cars will arrive at the park's gates; the daily battle for a parking spot begins.

But in this moment, sitting on the cool ground, gazing at the sky and listening to the calming flow of the river, we don't hear or see another soul — as if we have the entire park to ourselves.

Xplore reporter Stephen Meyers covers the outdoors and recreation for the Coloradoan. Follow him on Twitter @stemeyer or @XploreNoCo.

Rocky Mountain National Park

Where: 45 miles southwest of Fort Collins, near Estes Park

Cost: $20 for day pass; $30 for weekly pass: $50 for annual Rocky pass

Night visit: Even if you're not camping, visit the park at night for stargazing, close-up views of elk and other wildlife and far less busy roads and trailheads. For the daring, take a night hike to popular destinations like Dream Lake for an enhanced experience. The park hosts several guided stargazing events throughout the summer. On Aug. 5, join a park ranger and astronomer for a stargazing program at Upper Beaver Meadows.

Information: www.nps.gov/romo