Our Wildlife
One thing you’ll find, once in Estes Park, is lots of information on how to interact with our wildlife. Enjoy them, but keep your distance.
Raccoons are cute, and around almost every evening. They are also hungry and curious. If you leave food out on your deck, just assume they’ll eat it. A few years back, a guest put a styrofoam cooler filled with fish on his second floor balcony. Next morning he came into the office asking who’d stolen his fish. We told him and suggested he bring the cooler in at night. He didn’t. The following morning he came in and indicated that not only had they eaten the contents of the cooler, they ate through the cooler to get at the food. The raccoons were quick to learn that they just need to open a corner of the screen door and they can slip right in.
Bears wander into town, looking for food to sustain them. They love dumpsters and are very adept at breaking into them, despite the ways we lock the lids down. They announce their arrival by banging on the lids, as they attempt to open them. If you hear them, you’ll probably hear a door slam, see a bright light shined on them as I attempt to chase them away. You need to stay close to your front door. Occasionally, we’ll find one or two bear cubs wandering around. Should you see them, keep your distance. Their protective mother is probably close by and you don’t want get on her bad side.
The elk wander about at will. Keep your distance, particularly from a bull with a 6×7 rack (that’s a way of saying, really, really big). When a bull with a big rack swings his head from side to side, those points on his antlers cover a lot of ground. By the way, the elk have a calving ground adjacent to the walking trail on the north side of Lake Estes. During calving season, the trail is usually blocked off during this time. However, after the trail is opened, there are cows and calves around for the rest of the summer. As you walk the lake trail, be careful not to get between a cow and calf.
Guests can often enjoy viewing a large diversity of wildlife from Blue Jays, Magpies, Wild Turkeys, Owls, and Humming Birds to Ground Squirrels, Marmots, and an occasional Hummingbird Moth on the expanse of property along the river. We also have Big Horn Sheep, Coyotes, Red Fox, Bobcats, and Mountain Lions. But they are rarely seen and very shy.
