The wildlife of the park provided much entertainment! In the fall, elk come down from the mountains into the meadows to eat and mate. Moraine Park Campground is located in the middle of this area. All night we could hear faint noises coming from all directions of the park. It sounded like a child trying to play a trumpet. For a long time we actually believed that it was a misbehaving child. It wasn't until morning that we discovered exactly what the noise was. Upon waking up and exiting the tent, we witnessed a heard of elk feeding just yards from our campsite. Minutes later from the other direction, a male elk approached - making the same noise we heard all during the night. Apparently this is a mating ritual for the elk. The male makes this noise to attract females. Truly amazing. It was like being IN a National Geographic special!

Best Things About the Resort:


Resort Experience:
Stay: September 13-14, 2004

We made our reservations online at:
http://reservations.nps.gov

The campsite we chose was the walk-in tent area. On our reservation request, we added "Scenic and secluded if possible." At other places that we have done walk-in camping, the sites were literally walk-in, about 100 yards or so from a main parking area. This was more like car camping. Our parking spot was only about 50 yards from the site and in order to get to it, we had to walk through other people's sites.

The site was very scenic, though. We had no one camping behind us. There was a small hill behind us that faced a rocky open meadow. It was a great place to sit and watch the sun rise or set.

The campground has specific areas for you to pitch your tent. It is a raised area filled with a dense gravel. Our tent only has very fragile thin stakes, so we really had to force them in by banging on them with rocks. We now know that we should buy thicker stakes. The site also had a very nice fire pit with a grill cover over half of the pit. We used this to cook our hot dogs. We also had our own picnic table to use.

You must purchase an entrance pass (one per vehicle) to get into the park. This was $15 at the time of our visit and it was good for 7 days. Camping was $20. Firewood purchased at the campground was $2.50. The firewood man also had ice, ice cream, and soda for sale.

Directions:
Just beyond the Beaver Meadows entrance station.