On Saturday, we took a drive to Denver to visit the Strannahan’s Distillery. And though they make a drinkable whiskey, I didn’t feel the need to photograph it. I saved the camera for afterward as there was another entrance to the park that we were going to drive by. This one promised waterfalls. After a short hile to see the smallish Copeland Falls, we stopped to sit on a log. 

Needless to say, I found the log very interesting. Here is a close up of the insect trails.

While we were visiting Estes Park, we stayed in a lovely cabin in Big Thompson Canyon. It had a private hot tub, a kitchen, lots of comfy chairs and a river running behind it. This is the river running behind the cabin. The Big Thompson River isn’t very big right now, but I’m guessing it might be when it isn’t autumn and dry.

He’s pretty much gone past me now. He followed the shoreline, I stayed away well back on the shore. After he went up the trail I had come down, I followed and got the hell out of there.

While I still admit this was stupid, by this point I was pretty sure he wasn’t going to be coming near me. He noticed me, I know that because he was nervous. He had a destination in mind though. That’s right: the ladies. And I knew enough to not get between him and them. 

I really didn’t get any smarter once he got closer. But at least I did have a long zoom. There is no way I wanted to get close to a young male elk when mating season was coming on.

He was really pretty though. Can I say that about a boy?

We left the golf course and followed a family down a path into some trees. It didn’t look like much, but I’d hoped to see some birds I could photograph. I was wrong. There may have been birds, but I didn’t notice them. Instead I noticed this young elk swimming across the water toward me. 

Right at me. Having read the signs about aggression, this was one of those times that I realized I was taking a stupid risk to get a photo. 

After a day of hiking and driving and having elk sightings: we decided we needed to see more elk. Maybe take a few more elk pictures. Not knowing where else to go (turns out anywhere is pretty good) we headed back to the golf course. There we were able to get close to a bunch of elk. Mostly lady elk like this one who is eating the golf course.

This is a herd of elk. They gather in the area known as Horseshoe Park in the fall. I took this from the Sheep Lakes overlook. 

This guy is looking over his harem. Lovin’ life.

I love crows. I don’t know where I developed this particualr love of crows. I love smart animals and crows are some of the smartest there are. (If you haven’t seen it go watch this TED talk on it: http://www.ted.com/talks/joshua_klein_on_the_intelligence_of_crows.html.) 

So this is a magpie, a relative of the crow. One that doesn’t live by me. It’s one of the reasons I like going out west. I think it is rather pretty.

This is the view from the overlook at Many Parks Curve. I think this is a lovely valley.