I first saw this big fellow from the road below the campground. He and ten or more other elk had moved up into the trees between the campground, which is on a lateral moraine and the Moraine Park meadows below.
I walked back up the trail to the camper to let Karen know about elk being very close to the campground and then walked a few sites down to see if I could see them again. Sure enough, there they were. This big bull elk was in the woods slowly moving up the valley.
At about the same time, I could hear a bunch of coyotes yipping off in the other direction. We had heard a some a couple of nights before, but not nearly as clearly.
Eventually the bull elk bedded down for the day. I guess they are most active at night with their feeding and breeding. The meadows are closed to the public from 5 PM to 7 AM during the rutting season. The closure started the first week of September.
Where this guy decided to bed down was pretty neat, too — right below our campside. I took the picture of our camper below from the same spot that I shot the image above.
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What a gorgeous shot! We have local urban deer around where I live…nothing so majestic.
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Wow, he’s sure a big, burly fellow. And his expression seems to be on the verge of threatening — aware, questioning, sniffing and showing his strength. Beautiful guy.
BTW, it was nice to see the photo of Karen and you. First glimpse I’ve seen of her.
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Wow! Gorgeous. What a great picture.
Wow Thanks for sharing – very neat photo and cool experience
Way to go
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He is huge Mike. I haven’t seen a coyote before aside from on TV. Do they sound a lot like wolves?
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