Tag Archives: Elk

Monopoly Traveler Reflections, Rocky Moutain National Park, Troy's Blog

Monopoly Traveler Reflections–Our First Encounter With a Bull Elk

It was the fourth National Park in our first week of our Monopoly Traveler Adventures. We had just entered Rocky Mountain National Park and had been there less then an hour before coming upon a huge traffic jam. What was this we wondered? Not having experienced one of these before we had no idea what to expect. Everyone was getting out of their cars after attempting to park them on the side of the road and walking towards a spot in the forest. Eventually we saw what had caused this sudden parking lot, it was a pair of Bull Elk laying down not far from the road. We decided to join in with the rest of the crowd, grabbing a spot recently vacated on the side of the road and walk to see these magnificent creatures.

Bull Elk wanting to be left alone

We couldn’t fully believe what we were seeing. Right next to the road with all of these people around are a pair of elks just resting as if all of this commotion was of no concern. This was the first time any of us had ever seen an elk and spent some time gazing as they would turn their heads swinging their huge, velvety anthers showing us just how large they were. What an introduction to this beautiful park! As if the mountainous landscape wasn’t enough of a reason to be here, now we had some great wildlife to add to the experience. Like many of those around us, I was snapping away with the camera unsure if we would have another opportunity to view another elk in this vast space.

The kids in the Rocky Mountains with a Bull Elk resting in the background

After photographing and watching these wild animals for awhile, I decided to have my two daughters stand with these elk in the background to highlight how close they actually were. Trying to stay the recommended distance away and making sure there was an easy escape should one of these elk stand up and threaten anyone, I continued taking pictures. Unfortunately others decided to approach the wildlife to see how close they could get and take a picture causing this pair of bulls to stand up and meander on through the forest.  This seemed so disrespectful and disappointing because now other visitors didn’t have the chance to see these wild animals. We returned to our vehicle to continue our journey exploring this amazing and beautiful park. By the end of our time in Rocky Mountain National Park, spotting elk would become a little more mundane and almost expected as we would continue to see these large deer in several areas along our adventure here.

The elk was disturbed enough it finally got up to move

Troy's Blog, wildlife, Yellowstone National Park

A Warm Yellowstone Greeting

On our first trip into Yellowstone National Park, we were less than five miles from the North Entrance when the first encounter with wildlife began. I call these our park greeters welcoming us to Yellowstone. For me it is a truly great way to start a national park adventure and a good sign of what is to come. While driving a short distance I happened to glance to my left and caught a glimpse of a fawn through trees and brush. Fortunately this occurred near a pull off designed to allow people to stop along side the road to take in the sights of that area so I quickly decided to turn in and see if I could spot that fawn again.

Elk fawn drinking from the Gardner River

Within a minute or two the Elk fawn and its mother appeared coming closer to us. And then there was another fawn in sight. Within a few minutes five Elk fawns and their mothers were grazing within sight and coming closer. By this time the pull off was full of other people all trying to photograph these animals as is typical in Yellowstone. Fortunately this occurred just after 6pm and many people had already left the park allowing for better traffic flow. Not that I really noticed the traffic because these Elk and their fawns were so much fun to watch.

Trying to cross the raging river

Eventually the mothers all decided they wanted to cross the Gardner River coming closer towards all of us set up to capture this event. They slowly coaxed the fawns to wade through this rushing water towards greener pastures. Because of larger amounts of snow this past winter, the river was flowing faster than normal from more melting snow making it increasingly difficult to ford.

Elk fawn struggling in the rushing Gardner River

After a few attempts the fawns decided this was a bad idea with conditions too dangerous for them to safely make it across. They found a spot on the river bank and stood their ground. I wonder if having an audience for this helped deter them from trying to make it through this swiftly moving water? As I looked over this pull off full of cars carrying many people with large cameras all looking for a photograph of these Elk fawns crossing a river for the first time, I could see some disappointment as the realizations they were not going to cross the river. Understandable as how often do you get on opportunity to witness such an event right in front of you?

Not this time

The next twenty minutes or so these fawns would call over to their mothers with these mothers responding attempting to convince the other to get on the other side of the river. After several attempts the mothers all crossed back over the Gardner River to be reunited with their fawns. Several days later we drove by these same Elk and saw that the fawns had successfully crossed the swift river in a different location.

Reunited