Hello Friends, Even though we just returned two weeks ago from The Tetons and Yellowstone, the mountains have been calling to me. We are so blessed to live in an area that within 45 minutes we are up in Rocky Mountain National Park. We went up a week ago and didn't see a thing-no wildlife and the color was sparse. We've been watching the nightly news to see how the colors are peaking and hit it just right. Our daughter Kim and family went up last Saturday morning, bright and early and not only saw so many Elk, but also the colors. Hubby is off today and I told him I wanted to leave by 6:30 a.m. to get up there first thing; we got on the road about 6:40 and were in the park by 7:30. We headed to the area Kim saw the large herd and were not disappointed at all. I didn't even try to count the number, but there was only one bull around. We did hear another bugling from about a mile away. They would answer each other, but we never caught sight of him. Isn't this big guy amazing!
Here is he answering the call that he is watching over his harem.
The small female is obviously pregnant.
I love having a nice telephoto lens, event though it's not as big as some of the others we saw~it still captures wildlife up close.
At this point he was chasing a young buck away-the youngster didn't have any horns yet, but obviously he was interested in the females.
One of his kids I presume.
Love this shot.
I can tell you that Colorado has been in the news this week when someone up in Estes Park tried to walk between two males fighting. What happened was the bull knocked the female down and someone had to drive his truck between the two; his truck came out with a huge hole in it.
So, you'd think with all the signs saying don't approach the wildlife, and the news, people would give them space. As we were leaving the park this afternoon, we saw a crowd gathered with cameras ready. A single bull was lying in the grass, very much awake with a man crouching in the grass nearby trying to get a close up. He did not have a telephoto and we just shook our head, thinking how reckless he was being. Finally the man got up and walked away; he's very lucky. We've seen several attacks in recent years, some innocent and some from stupidity. I love wildlife and love getting great photos of them, but I'm always aware they are wild.
Tomorrow I'll be sharing the colors we saw today.
Have a wonderful evening!
Noreen
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