In January 2017, I visited Estes Park and explored Rocky Mountain National Park, saw lots of animals, and enjoyed the snow (of course).

The park was almost totally empty, and the ranger at the information center said that most of the roads in the park were closed since they’d gotten so much snow.

I’m jumping for joy in the picture above because I love snow and cold weather. The locals said it was the most snow they’d get all year as well as the coldest temperatures of the year (around -14 degrees Fahrenheit). Many of the stores and restaurants in Estes Park were closed or empty, whereas in the summer season there would be lines out the door.

In fact, I probably only saw a maximum of 15 other people in the park over the course of 4 days. The humans were vastly outnumbered by deer and elk.

There were a quite a few deer wandering around the cabins!

The sky cleared up after a few days, and it stopped snowing. But the owner of this car definitely had a lot of snow to clean off their car.